Actors who have portrayed Sherlock Holmes
From the anonymous actor who first brought him to life in 1900, over 130 actors have brought the character of Sherlock Holmes to life on screen. This list is a work in progress.
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- Director
- Actor
- Producer
American actor-director-writer-producer Gilbert M. Anderson, father of the movie cowboy and the first Western star, was born Maxwell Henry Aronson in Little Rock, Arkansas. His parents, Esther (Ash) and Henry Aronson, were from New York. His father was from a German Jewish family, and his mother was the daughter of Russian Jewish parents. He had worked as a photographer's model and newspaper vendor before drifting into acting. He performed in vaudeville before joining forces with Edwin S. Porter as an actor and occasional script collaborator. In Porter's startling early film The Great Train Robbery (1903), Anderson played several roles (among them, the train passenger shot by bandits as he tries to escape). The success of that film prompted Anderson to begin writing, directing and starring in his own series of Westerns. In 1907 he and George K. Spoor founded Essanay Film Manufacturing Co., destined to be one of the predominant early film studios. Anderson gained enormous popularity in hundreds of Western shorts, playing the first real cowboy hero, "Broncho Billy." Writing and directing most of the films, Anderson also found time to direct a series of "Alkali Ike" comedy Westerns starring Augustus Carney. In 1916 Anderson sold his ownership in Essanay and retired from acting. He returned to New York and bought the Longacre Theatre and produced plays there, though not achieving the same kind of success he enjoyed in films. He made a brief comeback as a producer with a series of shorts starring Stan Laurel for Metro Pictures. However, a series of conflicts with the studio led him retire again after 1920. He continued to produce films as owner of Progressive Pictures into the 1950s. In his 70s, he came out of retirement for a cameo role in The Bounty Killer (1965). He had been presented with an honorary Oscar in 1957 as a "motion picture pioneer, for his contributions to the development of motion pictures as entertainment." Anderson died in 1971 at the age of 90.Adventures of Sherlock Holmes (1905)- Director
- Actor
- Producer
Viggo Larsen was born on 14 August 1880 in Copenhagen, Denmark. He was a director and actor, known for Der Eid des Stephan Huller (1912), The Grey Lady (1909) and Das Kriegslied der Rheinarmee (1914). He died on 6 January 1957 in Copenhagen, Denmark.Sherlock Holmes (1908)
Sherlock Holmes II: Raffles Escaped from Prison (1909)
Sherlock Holmes III: The Detective's Adventure in the Gas Cellar(1909)
Sherlock Holmes IV (1909)
Cab Number 519 (1909)
The Grey Lady (1909)
Sherlock Holmes V (1909)
The Theft of the Diamonds (1910)
Arsène Lupin contra Sherlock Holmes (1910)
Sherlock Holmes contra Professor Moriarty (1911)- Went om stage in 1887 at Odense Theater, a theater he would always return to over the years.
Toured abroad for many years - especially Norway (part of Denmark at the time) - where he was introduced to Henrik Ibsen. After performing for Ibsen he was accepted as a leading juvenile in his plays.
Lagoni had a sinister and stern look about him - a trait he used successfully in ca. 80 silent films. Nordisk Film hired him in 1909 and he was one of the first Sherlock Holmes in films (1910-11), but mostly appeared in dour character parts.
In his very thin book of memoirs, he did not mention one word about his extensive film career.
At one time married to actress Alma Lagoni.Sherlock Holmes i Bondefangerklør (1910)
Den forklædte barnepige (1911)
Den sorte Haand (1911) - Actor
- Director
- Writer
Alwin Neuß was born on 17 June 1879 in Cologne, Germany. He was an actor and director, known for Detective Brown (1914), Der Weg der Tränen (1916) and Streichhölzer, kauft Streichhölzer! (1916). He died on 30 October 1935 in Berlin, Germany.The Stolen Legacy (1911)
Der Hund von Baskerville (1914)
The Isolated House (1914)
Detective Brown (1914)
Der Hund von Baskerville, 4. Teil (1915)
Der Hund von Baskerville, 3. Teil - Das unheimliche Zimmer (1916)- Actor
- Director
- Additional Crew
Georges Tréville was born on 28 July 1875 in Paris, France. He was an actor and director, known for The Reigate Squires (1912), The Mystery of Boscombe Vale (1912) and The Stolen Papers (1912). He died on 30 May 1944 in Wy-dit-Joly-Village, Val-d'Oise, France.The Stolen Papers (1912)
The Speckled Band (1912)
The Reigate Squires (1912)
The Mystery of Boscombe Vale (1912)
The Musgrave Ritual (1912)
The Beryl Coronet (1912)
Silver Blaze (1912)
The Copper Beeches (1912)- Indiana-born Harry Benham grew up in Chicago, Illinois. As a child he was possessed of a fine singing voice and sang in the local church choir. In 1904 the traveling musical "Peggy from Paris" was playing in Chicago and he got a job in the chorus. He soon graduated to singing the lead role. His success in that production led to roles in other plays, such as "The Sultan of Sulu", "Woodland" and "Marrying Mary".
He joined the Thanhouser film company in 1910 and stayed there five years, appearing in dozens of the company's productions while continuing his stage work. After leaving Thanhouser he went over to Famous Players, then signed with Universal Pictures, for whom he made such films as The Doll Doctor (1916), Love's Masquerade (1916) and The Capital Prize (1916). He also appeared in productions for other studios, such as Pathe's The Last of the Carnabys (1917), Warren Productions' The Warfare of the Flesh (1917) and American's The Frame-Up (1917). After leaving Universal he freelanced for quite a few studios, both minor and major, including Select's Cecilia of the Pink Roses (1918) (which was Marion Davies' second film), Paramount's Hush Money (1921) and Vitagraph's The Prey (1920). He made his final film in 1922, after which he retired from the movie industry and went into the clothing business.
His wife, actress Ethyle Cooke, died in 1949, and Harry remarried four years later to a widow he met in Florida. He died on July 17, 1969, in Sarasota, Florida, after a long illness.Sherlock Holmes Solves the Sign of the Four (1913) - James Bragington is known for A Study in Scarlet (1914).A Study in Scarlet (1914)
- Actor
- Director
- Writer
Elder brother of the director John Ford and himself a screen director (and John's erstwhile mentor) until the advent of sound. He had also acted in his own films and those of other directors, but turned to acting exclusively circa 1929. As actor, he would provide convincing portrayals of men of authority - men sometimes ruthless if not downright unsavory. (See him as the Republican judge in his brother John's The Informer (1935).) But he also had an ample feel for light comedy. (See him in John's The Quiet Man (1952), as the village elder who - almost in the manner of slapstick - rouses himself from his very deathbed to witness the film's donnybrook dénouement.)A Study in Scarlet (1914)- Actor
- Director
- Writer
Eugen Burg was born on 6 January 1871 in Berlin, Germany. He was an actor and director, known for Der wird geheiratet (1921), The Hound of the Baskervilles (1915) and Alles aus Gefälligkeit (1916). He was married to Emmy Raabe-Burg. He died on 15 November 1944 in Theresienstadt Concentration Camp, Protectorate of Bohemia and Moravia [now Terezín, Czech Republic].Das dunkle Schloß (1915)- Writer
- Actor
Handsome American actor, playwright and stage director/producer William Gillette was born in Hartford, CT, in 1853. His father Francis was a former United States Senator and crusader for women's suffrage and the abolition of slavery; his mother Elisabeth Daggett Hooker is a descendant of Rev. Thomas Hooker, who either wrote or inspired the first written constitution in history to form a government.
In 1873 William left Hartford to begin his apprenticeship as an actor, briefly working for a stock theatre company in New Orleans and then returning to New England. He made his debut at the Globe Theatre in Boston with Mark Twain's play "The Guilded Age" in 1875. His first major Civil War drama, "Hold by the Enemy", was a major step forward to modern theatre in that it abandoned many crude devices of Victorian melodrama and introduced realism into the sets, props, costumes, sound effects and performances; it was a critical and commercial success in America and Britain.
Gillette is probably best remembered, however, as the first actor to be universally acclaimed for portraying Sir Arthur Conan Doyle's famed detective Sherlock Holmes, playing the role first on stage in 1899 and continuing for more than 35 years. He also wrote many stage versions from Doyle's Sherlock Holmes novels and even starred in the film version, Sherlock Holmes (1916), directed by Arthur Berthelet for the Essanay Film Co. He had previously appeared in two other films, his debut being in J.P. McGowan's The Battle at Fort Laramie (1913) and the following year he played support as Jack Lane in The Delayed Special (1914), both of which starred Helen Holmes and were made for the Kalem Film Co. Gillette also became popular on radio, performing the first radio serial version of Sherlock Holmes in 1930 and in 1935. His last stage appearance was in Austin Strong's "Three Wise Fools" in 1936. He wrote 13 original plays, seven adaptations and some collaborations, encompassing farce, melodrama and novel adaptation. He also wrote two pieces based on the US Civil War, "Held by the Ememy" and "Secret Service", which were highly acclaimed. In 1882 he married Helen Nichols, who died in 1888 from peritonitis; he never remarried.
Gillette died from pulmonary hemorrhage in Connecticut in 1937 at age 83.Sherlock Holmes (1916)- Actor
- Writer
Ferdinand Bonn was born on 20 December 1861 in Donauwörth, Bavaria, Germany. He was an actor and writer, known for Svengali (1914), Salome (1920) and Strauss, the Waltz King (1928). He died on 24 September 1933 in Berlin, Germany.Die Memoiren des Satans, 1. Teil - Doktor Mors (1917)
Was er im Spiegel sah (1918)- Hugo Flink was born on 16 August 1879 in Vienna, Austria-Hungary [now Austria]. He was an actor, known for The Earthquake Motor (1917), The Beggar from Cologne Cathedral (1927) and Die Kassette (1917). He died on 2 May 1947 in Berlin, Germany.Die Kassette (1917)
Der Erdstrommotor (1917)
Der Schlangenring (1918) - Willy Kaiser-Heyl was born on 4 August 1876 in Frankfurt, Germany. He was an actor, known for Die Tragödie eines Großen (1920), Der Hund von Baskerville - 6. Teil: Das Haus ohne Fenster (1920) and Alexandra (1922). He died on 2 December 1953 in Berlin, Germany.Der Hund von Baskerville - 6. Teil: Das Haus ohne Fenster (1920)
- Eille Norwood was born on 11 October 1861 in York, England, UK. He was an actor, known for The Man with the Twisted Lip (1921), The Hound of the Baskervilles (1921) and The Sign of Four (1923). He was married to Ruth Mackay. He died on 24 December 1948 in London, England, UK.The Yellow Face (1921)
The Sign of Four (1923)
et Al. - Actor
- Writer
- Soundtrack
John Barrymore was born John Sidney Blyth on February 15, 1882 in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania. An American stage and screen actor whose rise to superstardom and subsequent decline is one of the legendary tragedies of Hollywood. A member of the most famous generation of the most famous theatrical family in America, he was also its most acclaimed star. His father was Maurice Blyth (or Blythe; family spellings vary), a stage success under the name Maurice Barrymore. His mother, Georgie Drew, was the daughter of actor John Drew. Although well known in the theatre, Maurice and Georgie were eclipsed by their three children, John, Lionel Barrymore, and Ethel Barrymore, each of whom became legendary stars. John was handsome and roguish. He made his stage debut at age 18 in one of his father's productions, but was much more interested in becoming an artist.
Briefly educated at King's College, Wimbledon, and at New York's Art Students League, Barrymore worked as a freelance artist and for a while sketched for the New York Evening Journal. Gradually, though, the draw of his family's profession ensnared him, and by 1905, he had given up professional drawing and was touring the country in plays. He survived the 1906 San Francisco earthquake, and in 1909, became a major Broadway star in "The Fortune Hunter". In 1922, Barrymore became his generation's most acclaimed "Hamlet", in New York and London. But by this time, he had become a frequent player in motion pictures. His screen debut supposedly came in An American Citizen (1914), though records of several lost films indicate he may have made appearances as far back as 1912. He became every bit the star of films that he was on stage, eclipsing his siblings in both arenas.
Though his striking matinee-idol looks had garnered him the nickname "The Great Profile", he often buried them under makeup or distortion in order to create memorable characters of degradation or horror. He was a romantic leading man into the early days of sound films, but his heavy drinking (since boyhood) began to take a toll, and he degenerated quickly into a man old before his time. He made a number of memorable appearances in character roles, but these became over time more memorable for the humiliation of a once-great star than for his gifts. His last few films were broad and distasteful caricatures of himself, though in even the worst, such as Playmates (1941), he could rouse himself to a moving soliloquy from "Hamlet". He died on May 29, 1942, mourned as much for the loss of his life as for the loss of grace, wit, and brilliance which had characterized his career at its height.Sherlock Holmes (1922)- Actor
- Director
- Producer
Carlyle Blackwell was a popular American matinee idol and occasional director of the silent cinema. Debonair and darkly handsome, he made his debut with Vitagraph in Uncle Tom's Cabin (1910) and was seldom out of work as a romantic lead, progressing from one- and two-reelers to feature films by 1914. He was Kalem's number one star until 1915, when Jesse L. Lasky poached him for Famous Players. In 1921, Blackwell embarked on a European tour and opted to remain in England for the remainder of the decade, which turned out to be a good career move. He became the first actor to portray Bulldog Drummond (1922) in a British/Dutch co-production, following this box-office success with another, as Lord Robert Dudley in the period drama The Virgin Queen (1923). He retained his popularity until the arrival of sound, which abruptly ended his career. Blackwell had the final distinction of being the last silent actor to play Sherlock Holmes at the head of an international cast in the German production The Hound of the Baskervilles (1929).Der Hund von Baskerville (1929)- Actor
- Director
- Writer
Born in London, England to Charlotte Mary (opera singer) and George Alfred Brook. He was educated privately. Stage experience included: "Oliver Twist", "Voysey Inheritence", "If I were King", "Importance of Being Ernest", Fair and Warmer", "Over Sunday", "Clothes and the WOman", and many others. Screen experience with Graham-Cutts Company in London. He appeared in "Woman to Woman", and others. In 1924 he came to America.The Return of Sherlock Holmes (1929)
Paramount on Parade (1930)
Sherlock Holmes (1932)- Actor
- Writer
- Producer
Educated at the University of Toronto & Balliol College, Oxford, he joined the Canadian Field Artillery in World War I, served in France & was wounded. His first appearance was in a stage production in Siberia, during the multi-nation intervention of 1918 - 1919. Raymond returned to Canada & his family farm implement business , Massey-Harris Tractor Company, after the war, although footlights proved a greater allure than plowshares. He appeared at the Everyman Theatre, London in "In the Zone" in 1922 and from then his acting career never looked back. As adept in front of arc lights as the footlights, he was signed up for a 5 year contract by Alexander Korda. Major Massey was invalided from the Canadian Army in 1943. Raymond was devoted to his American wife Dorothy, to whom he referred all queries and problems. He had an ardent radio following in the States and became an American citizen. This was natural as his mother and maternal grandmother were Americans. A bad traveler, Raymond hated the sea and airplanes. A good sportsman, he excelled at golf and fishing, A scholar, he loved good literature. A modest man, he regarded himself as supremely uninteresting.The Speckled Band (1931)- Robert Rendel was born on 2 December 1884 in St. Marys Abbots, London, England, UK. He was an actor, known for The Four Feathers (1939), The Hound of the Baskervilles (1931) and Twice Branded (1936). He died on 9 May 1944 in Marylebone, London, England, UK.The Hound of the Baskervilles (1931)
- Arthur Wontner (1875-1960), the critics' choice. "No better "Sherlock Holmes" than Arthur Wontner is likely to be seen and heard in pictures, in our time... The keen, worn, kindly face and quiet prescient smile are out of the very pages of the book", Vincent Starrett's 'The Private Life of Sherlock Holmes'.
Arthur Wontner made his first stage appearance in 1897 and his first film 18 years later. Best-known today for his characterization of "Sherlock Holmes" in five films produced between 1931 and 1938, some Holmes aficionados prefer Wontner's studious interpretation to the more aggressive, energetic portrayals of Basil Rathbone. Ironically, Wontner landed the role on the strength of his performance in the 1930 stage production, Sexton Blake, based on a pulp-fiction character who'd been created as a Sherlock Holmes imitation. In later years, he played several small but memorable character roles, such as the elderly automobile fancier in Genevieve (1953).
Wontner was fifty-six when he made his first Sherlock Holmes film, "Sherlock Holmes' Fatal Hour" (actually called Sherlock Holmes' Fatal Hour (1931) in England). The story was based on "The Final Problem", but with some liberal rearranging. Norman McKinnel played "Moriarty" in this movie but would be replaced by Lyn Harding ("Dr. Grimesby Roylott" in Doyle's play, "The Speckled Band") for the others in the series. "The Missing Rembrandt" (based on "Charles Augustus Milverton") and "The Sign of Four" would be the next two films with Wonter.
For the final two, he would be pitted against "Professor Moriarty". The Triumph of Sherlock Holmes (1935) was from "The Valley of Fear", and last up was Murder at the Baskervilles (1937). Apparently, the studio had difficulty in making the short story fill out to a feature-length film, as both "Moriarty" and "Henry Baskerville" are added to the movie. Strangely enough, though made in 1937, it wasn't released in the U.S. until 1941, when Basil Rathbone had already made The Hound of the Baskervilles (1939). To cash in on the success of that film, Wontner's movie was retitled "Murder at the Baskervilles".
Two actors played "Watson": Ian Hunter in The Sign of Four: Sherlock Holmes' Greatest Case (1932) and Ian Fleming, an Australian actor, who played "Watson" as "nice but dim". Of the five Holmes movies Wontner made, three were for Twickenham Studios, a low-budget production company. "Silver Blaze" and "The Sign of Four" were made by ARP. However, one of the films, Sherlock Holmes and the Missing Rembrandt (1932), is lost. Sherlock Holmes' Fatal Hour (1931) was unobtainable for decades, but it turned up on an American video dealer's list and was shown at the annual film evening in November 2000. It was very appropriate because it was first shown to the Society by Tony Howlett at the very first film evening in 1951, when Arthur Wontner, himself, was present.
The Society has the other three movies on film, "The Triumph of Sherlock Holmes", "Silver Blaze" and "The Sign of Four".
(This biography is used with the kind permission of The Sherlock Holmes Society of London.)Sherlock Holmes' Fatal Hour (1931)
Sherlock Holmes and the Missing Rembrandt (1932)
The Sign of Four: Sherlock Holmes' Greatest Case (1932)
The Triumph of Sherlock Holmes (1935)
Murder at the Baskervilles (1937) - Director
- Writer
- Actor
Martin Fric was born on 29 March 1902 in Prague, Bohemia, Austria-Hungary [now Czech Republic]. He was a director and writer, known for Workers, Let's Go (1934), Capek's Tales (1947) and Tajemství krve (1953). He was married to Suzanne Marwille. He died on 26 August 1968 in Prague, Czechoslovakia.Lelicek in the Services of Sherlock Holmes (1932)- Actor
- Writer
- Script and Continuity Department
Born August 5th, 1887 in England, Reginald Owen was among Hollywood's busier character actors, making more than 80 films. He was educated in England at Sir Herbert Tree's Academy of Dramatic Arts. Owen excelled and made his professional debut also in England at the age of 18. He came to New York in the early 1920s and started working on Broadway by 1924. He left New York in 1928 and moved to Hollywood, hoping to make it in films. In 1929, he landed his first role in The Letter. In 1932 he played Dr. Watson in Sherlock Holmes. Although, he didn't get many leading roles, he did get to work with some of Hollywood's most beautiful leading ladies like, Jean Harlow, Joan Crawford, Jeanette MacDonald (Owen's personal favorite), Barbara Stanwyck and Elizabeth Taylor. Owen continued to work into his 70s and 80s making family classics, such as Mary Poppins (1964) and Bedknobs and Broomsticks (1971). He died in 1972 at the ripe age of 85 of natural causes.A Study in Scarlet (1933)- Actor
- Producer
- Soundtrack
Life companion was the actress Hansi Burg. Their relationship started in 1925. They separated in 1935 due to the pressure of the German Nazi government. In 1938 she went into exile in Switzerland (later London). Shortly after this she married the Norwegian Erich Blydt. Burg returned to Germany and Albers in 1946. They lived together until his death 1960. She died 15 years later.[Morris Flint as Sherlock Holmes]
Der Mann, der Sherlock Holmes war (1937)- Louis Hector was born on 19 March 1883 in Islington, London, England, UK. He was an actor, known for The Three Garridebs (1937), Tales of Tomorrow (1951) and Northwest Passage (1940). He died in October 1968 in New York City, New York, USA.The Three Garridebs (1937)
- Actor
- Writer
- Additional Crew
Basil Rathbone was born in Johannesburg, South Africa, in 1892, but three years later his family was forced to flee the country because his father was accused by the Boers of being a British spy at a time when Dutch-British conflicts were leading to the Boer War. The Rathbones escaped to England, where Basil and his two younger siblings, Beatrice and John, were raised. Their mother, Anna Barbara (George), was a violinist, who was born in Grahamstown, South Africa, of British parents, and their father, Edgar Philip Rathbone, was a mining engineer born in Liverpool. From 1906 to 1910 Rathbone attended Repton School, where he was more interested in sports--especially fencing, at which he excelled--than studies, but where he also discovered his interest in the theater. After graduation he planned to pursue acting as a profession, but his father disapproved and suggested that his son try working in business for a year, hoping he would forget about acting. Rathbone accepted his father's suggestion and worked as a clerk for an insurance company--for exactly one year. Then he contacted his cousin Frank Benson, an actor managing a Shakespearean troupe in Stratford-on-Avon.
Rathbone was hired as an actor on the condition that he work his way through the ranks, which he did quite rapidly. Starting in bit parts in 1911, he was playing juvenile leads within two years. In 1915 his career was interrupted by the First World War. During his military service, as a second lieutenant in the Liverpool Scottish 2nd Battalion, he worked in intelligence and received the Military Cross for bravery. In 1919, released from military service, he returned to Stratford-on-Avon and continued with Shakespeare but after a year moved onto the London stage. The year after that he made his first appearance on Broadway and his film debut in the silent Innocent (1921).
For the remainder of the decade Rathbone alternated between the London and New York stages and occasional appearances in films. In 1929 he co-wrote and starred as the title character in a short-running Broadway play called "Judas". Soon afterwards he abandoned his first love, the theater, for a film career. During the 1920s his roles had evolved from the romantic lead to the suave lady-killer to the sinister villain (usually wielding a sword), and Hollywood put him to good use during the 1930s in numerous costume romps, including Captain Blood (1935), David Copperfield (1935), A Tale of Two Cities (1935), Anna Karenina (1935), The Last Days of Pompeii (1935), The Adventures of Robin Hood (1938), Tower of London (1939), The Mark of Zorro (1940) and others. Rathbone earned two Oscar nominations for Best Supporting Actor as Tybalt in Romeo and Juliet (1936) and as King Louis XI in If I Were King (1938).
However, it was in 1939 that Rathbone played his best-known and most popular character, Sherlock Holmes, with Nigel Bruce as Dr. Watson, first in The Hound of the Baskervilles (1939) and then in The Adventures of Sherlock Holmes (1939), which were followed by 12 more films and numerous radio broadcasts over the next seven years.
Feeling that his identification with the character was killing his film career, Rathbone went back to New York and the stage in 1946. The next year he won a Tony Award for his portrayal of Dr. Sloper in the Broadway play "The Heiress," but afterwards found little rewarding stage work. Nevertheless, during the last two decades of his life, Rathbone was a very busy actor, appearing on numerous television shows, primarily drama, variety and game shows; in occasional films, such as Casanova's Big Night (1954), The Court Jester (1955), Tales of Terror (1962) and The Comedy of Terrors (1963); and in his own one-man show, "An Evening with Basil Rathbone", with which he toured the U.S.The Hound of the Baskervilles (1939)
The Adventures of Sherlock Holmes (1939)
Sherlock Holmes and the Voice of Terror (1942)
Sherlock Holmes and the Secret Weapon (1942)
Sherlock Holmes in Washington (1943)
Sherlock Holmes Faces Death (1943)
Crazy House (1943)
The Spider Woman (1943)
The Scarlet Claw (1944)
The Pearl of Death (1944)
The House of Fear (1945)
The Woman in Green (1945)
Pursuit to Algiers (1945)
Terror by Night (1946)
Dressed to Kill (1946)
Suspense: The Adventure of the Black Baronet (1953)
Texaco Star Theatre (1954)- Actor
- Writer
John McLeish was born on 10 May 1916 in Montreal, Quebec, Canada. He was an actor and writer, known for Fantasia (1940), The Adventures of Ichabod and Mr. Toad (1949) and Carnival Courage (1945). He was married to Lila Dorothea Wead. He died on 30 October 1968 in Montreal, Quebec, Canada.[Hairlick Combs]
The Case of the Screaming Bishop (1944)- Actor
- Director
- Writer
José Baviera was born on 17 August 1906 in Valencia, Spain. He was an actor and director, known for The Exterminating Angel (1962), La barraca (1945) and Cinco vidas y un destino (1957). He was married to Elena D'Orgaz. He died on 13 August 1981 in Mexico, D.F., Mexico.Arsenio Lupin (1947)- Actor
- Additional Crew
- Soundtrack
A tall, distinguished-looking English character actor with aristocratic bearing and a precisely modulated voice, Alan William Napier-Clavering was born in Kings Norton, Worcestershire, England. A cousin of the former British Prime Minister Neville Chamberlain, he studied at the Royal Academy of Dramatic Art (graduating in 1925) and spent his formative years as an actor with Oxford Repertory and, from 1924, on the London stage. During the 1930s, he found his niche in Shakespearean roles. His characterisation of Menenius in a 1954 Boston revival of "Coriolanus" was described in the Christian Science Monitor (January 23, 1954) as imbued with "benevolent distinction and with some of the comic quality of the part". However, by that time, Napier had largely forsaken the stage for the screen.
In 1939, Alan Napier immigrated to America and, in the course of nearly five decades, appeared in film and on television as noblemen, manservants and doctors. His gaunt, suave, sometimes bespectacled characters could be kindly or nefarious. He gave good support in the supernatural thriller The Uninvited (1944) and lent gravitas to his role of Cicero in Julius Caesar (1953). Baby boomer TV audiences will remember him fondly as Bruce Wayne's ever reliable, and very English, butler Alfred Pennyworth in Batman (1966), starring Adam West. Napier's second wife, Aileen Dickens Bouchier Hawksley (nicknamed "Gypsy"), was a great-granddaughter of Charles Dickens. Alan Napier died at age 85 of pneumonia in Santa Monica, California on August 8, 1988.Your Show Time: The Adventure of the Speckled Band (1949)- Actor
- Writer
- Director
John Longden was born on 11 November 1900 in the West Indies. He was an actor and writer, known for Blackmail (1929), Quatermass 2 (1957) and Quinneys (1927). He was married to Jean Jay. He died on 26 May 1971 in London, England, UK.Sherlock Holmes: The Man Who Disappeared (1951)- Actor
- Additional Crew
Ernst Fritz Fürbringer was born on 27 July 1900 in Brunswick, Germany. He was an actor, known for Titanic (1943), Wallenstein (1978) and Vienna Blood (1942). He was married to Lizzi Rademacher. He died on 30 October 1988 in Munich, Bavaria, West Germany.Die Galerie der großen Detektive: Sherlock Holmes liegt im Sterben (1954)
Dr. med. Hiob Praetorius (1958)- The British actor Ronald Howard was born in Norwood, London, England, in 1918. He and his younger sister Leslie Ruth Howard were raised by their mother Ruth Evelyn Martin and their father, the renowned actor Leslie Howard. After college, Howard became a newspaper reporter for a while but decided to follow in his father's footsteps and become an actor.
He got his first taste of acting when he appeared with his father in an uncredited bit part in 'Pimpernel' Smith (1941). In the early 1940s, Howard gained acting experience in regional theater, later on the London stage, and eventually in films, with his official debut in While the Sun Shines (1947). His chief claim to fame is in television with his portrayal of Sherlock Holmes in the series Sherlock Holmes (1954), in which Howard Marion-Crawford played Dr. Watson. Boyishly handsome with a pleasant demeanor, Howard continued in film and television until the mid-1970s; however, he never caught on with audiences as well as his father had, prompting him to put aside his acting career to run an art gallery. In the 1980s, he wrote a biography of his father.Sherlock Holmes (1954-55) - Hilary Arthur Wontner was born into a theatrical family on 4th October 1912. His mother was actress Rose Pendennis and his father the famous English actor Arthur Wontner, most notable for his portrayal of the famous detective Sherlock Holmes. He married Denise Judith Dean (b. 4 February 1915) in Kensington on the 6th May 1947.
He was educated at Oundle School in Northamptonshire, along with his elder brother Hugh (later Sir Hugh Wontner, Lord Mayor of London). Hilary then went to Poitiers University in France and finally returned to London where he studied acting at RADA, the Royal Academy of Dramatic Art.
An actor from 1933, he was with the Shakespeare Memorial Theatre from 1935 and then the Birmingham Repertory Company from 1935 to 1937. From 1938 he appeared on the London and provincial stage, and had radio and television roles from 1938. He appeared in US television from 1962 to 1964.
At the outbreak of World War Two in 1939, he served in Field Security in France and Belgium. He was evacuated from Dunkirk in 1940. Later he was posted to the 5th/6th Punjab Regiment in the Indian Army, where he became a Captain in 1942. Between 1941 and 1943 he served in Burma, India and Iraq. He was editor of the Army journal in Bagdad before being seconded to the British Council in Iran in 1943 where he founded the Anglo-Iranian Dramatic Society in 1944.
After the war he became an announcer for 'Radio Normandy' in 1946 and 1947. He subsequently joined the South African Broadcasting Corporation in Johannesburg, where he was an announcer, scriptwriter and producer, going on to become an assistant programme organiser from 1950 to 1955.
On his return to England in 1957 he became a director of H. A. Wontner & Company.
He had two twin boys, born to his wife Denise on the 18th December 1947. Rupert Stephen Arthur Wontner and Nicholas St. John Hilary Wontner, and both Hilary's sons inherited their fathers gift for languages as well as his fiery red hair!Sherlock Holmes in the Singular Case of the Plural Green Mustache (1954) - Actor
- Music Department
- Soundtrack
Mel Blanc, known as "The Man of Thousand Voices" is regarded as the most prolific actor to ever work in Hollywood with over a thousand screen credits. He developed and performed nearly 400 distinct character voices with precision and a uniquely expressive vocal range. The legendary specialist from radio programs, television series, cartoon shorts and movie was rarely seen by his audience but his voice characterizations were famous around the world.
Blanc under exclusive contract until 1960 to Warner Brothers voiced virtually every major character in the Warner Brothers' Looney Tunes and Merry Melodies cartoon pantheon. Characters including Porky Pig, Bugs Bunny, Daffy Duck, Elmer Fudd, Tweety Bird, Sylvester the Cat, Wile E. Coyote,The Roadrunner, Yosemite Sam, Sam the Sheepdog, Taz the Tazmanian Devil, Speedy Gonzales, Marvin the Martian, Foghorn Leghorn, Pepé la Pew, Charlie the Dog, Blacque Jacque Shellacque, Pussyfoot, Private Snafu among others were voiced by Blanc.
After 1960, Blanc continued to work for Warner Brothers but began to work for other companies once his exclusive contract ended. He worked for Hanna-Barbera voicing characters including Barney Rubble, Dino the Dinosaur, Cosmo Spacely, Secret Squirrel, Captain Caveman, Speed Buggy, Wally Gator among others. He provided vocal effects for Tom & Jerry in the mid 1960's working with fellow Warner Bros. alum, Chuck Jones at what would become MGM Animation. In the mid 1960's, Blanc originated and voiced Toucan Sam for the Kellogg's Fruit Loops commercials. He would later go to originate and voice Twiki for Buck Rogers and Heathcliff in the late 1970's and early 1980's.[Dorlock Homes]
Deduce, You say (1956)- Actor
- Writer
- Art Department
Peter Wilton Cushing was born on May 26, 1913 in Kenley, Surrey, England, to Nellie Maria (King) and George Edward Cushing, a quantity surveyor. He and his older brother David were raised first in Dulwich Village, a south London suburb, and then later back in Surrey. At an early age, Cushing was attracted to acting, inspired by his favorite aunt, who was a stage actress. While at school, Cushing pursued his acting interest in acting and also drawing, a talent he put to good use later in his first job as a government surveyor's assistant in Surrey. At this time, he also dabbled in local amateur theater until moving to London to attend the Guildhall School of Music and Drama on scholarship. He then performed in repertory theater in Worthing, deciding in 1939 to head for Hollywood, where he made his film debut in The Man in the Iron Mask (1939). Other Hollywood films included A Chump at Oxford (1940) with Stan Laurel and Oliver Hardy, Vigil in the Night (1940) and They Dare Not Love (1941). However, after a short stay, he returned to England by way of New York (making brief appearances on Broadway) and Canada. Back in his homeland, he contributed to the war effort during World War II by joining the Entertainment National Services Association.
After the war, he performed in the West End and had his big break appearing with Laurence Olivier in Hamlet (1948), in which Cushing's future partner-in-horror Christopher Lee had a bit part. Both actors also appeared in Moulin Rouge (1952) but did not meet until their later horror films. During the 1950s, Cushing became a familiar face on British television, appearing in numerous teleplays, such as 1984 (1954) and Beau Brummell (1954), until the end of the decade when he began his legendary association with Hammer Film Productions in its remakes of the 1930s Universal horror classics. His first Hammer roles included Dr. Frankenstein in The Curse of Frankenstein (1957), Dr. Van Helsing in Horror of Dracula (1958), and Sherlock Holmes in The Hound of the Baskervilles (1959).
Cushing continued playing the roles of Drs. Frankenstein and Van Helsing, as well as taking on other horror characters, in Hammer films over the next 20 years. He also appeared in films for the other major horror producer of the time, Amicus Productions, including Dr. Terror's House of Horrors (1965) and its later horror anthologies, a couple of Dr. Who films (1965, 1966), I, Monster (1971), and others. By the mid-1970s, these companies had stopped production, but Cushing, firmly established as a horror star, continued in the genre for some time thereafter.
Perhaps his best-known appearance outside of horror films was as Grand Moff Tarkin in George Lucas' phenomenally successful science fiction film Star Wars: Episode IV - A New Hope (1977). Biggles: Adventures in Time (1986) was Cushing's last film before his retirement, during which he made a few television appearances, wrote two autobiographies and pursued his hobbies of bird watching and painting. In 1989, he was made an Officer of the Order of the British Empire in recognition of his contributions to the acting profession in Britain and worldwide. Peter Cushing died at age 81 of prostate cancer on August 11, 1994.The Hound of the Baskervilles (1959)
Sherlock Holmes (1968)
Sherlock Holmes and the Masks of Death (1984)- Actor
- Additional Crew
- Producer
Sir Christopher Frank Carandini Lee was perhaps the only actor of his generation to have starred in so many films and cult saga. Although most notable for personifying bloodsucking vampire, Dracula, on screen, he portrayed other varied characters on screen, most of which were villains, whether it be Francisco Scaramanga in the James Bond film, The Man with the Golden Gun (1974), or Count Dooku in Star Wars: Episode II - Attack of the Clones (2002), or as the title monster in the Hammer Horror film, The Mummy (1959).
Lee was born in 1922 in London, England, where he and his older sister Xandra were raised by their parents, Contessa Estelle Marie (Carandini di Sarzano) and Geoffrey Trollope Lee, a professional soldier, until their divorce in 1926. Later, while Lee was still a child, his mother married (and later divorced) Harcourt George St.-Croix (nicknamed Ingle), who was a banker. Lee's maternal great-grandfather was an Italian political refugee, while Lee's great-grandmother was English opera singer Marie (Burgess) Carandini.
After attending Wellington College from age 14 to 17, Lee worked as an office clerk in a couple of London shipping companies until 1941 when he enlisted in the Royal Air Force during World War II. Following his release from military service, Lee joined the Rank Organisation in 1947, training as an actor in their "Charm School" and playing a number of bit parts in such films as Corridor of Mirrors (1948). He made a brief appearance in Laurence Olivier's Hamlet (1948), in which his future partner-in-horror Peter Cushing also appeared. Both actors also appeared later in Moulin Rouge (1952) but did not meet until their horror films together.
Lee had numerous parts in film and television throughout the 1950s. He struggled initially in his new career because he was discriminated as being taller than the leading male actors of his time and being too foreign-looking. However, playing the monster in the Hammer film The Curse of Frankenstein (1957) proved to be a blessing in disguise, since the was successful, leading to him being signed on for future roles in Hammer Film Productions.
Lee's association with Hammer Film Productions brought him into contact with Peter Cushing, and they became good friends. Lee and Cushing often than not played contrasting roles in Hammer films, where Cushing was the protagonist and Lee the villain, whether it be Van Helsing and Dracula respectively in Horror of Dracula (1958), or John Banning and Kharis the Mummy respectively in The Mummy (1959).
Lee continued his role as "Dracula" in a number of Hammer sequels throughout the 1960s and into the early 1970s. During this time, he co-starred in The Hound of the Baskervilles (1959), and made numerous appearances as Fu Manchu, most notably in the first of the series The Face of Fu Manchu (1965), and also appeared in a number of films in Europe. With his own production company, Charlemagne Productions, Ltd., Lee made Nothing But the Night (1973) and To the Devil a Daughter (1976).
By the mid-1970s, Lee was tiring of his horror image and tried to widen his appeal by participating in several mainstream films, such as The Private Life of Sherlock Holmes (1970), The Three Musketeers (1973), The Four Musketeers: Milady's Revenge (1974), and the James Bond film The Man with the Golden Gun (1974).
The success of these films prompted him in the late 1970s to move to Hollywood, where he remained a busy actor but made mostly unremarkable film and television appearances, and eventually moved back to England. The beginning of the new millennium relaunched his career to some degree, during which he has played Count Dooku in Star Wars: Episode II - Attack of the Clones (2002) and as Saruman the White in the Lord of the Rings trilogy. Lee played Count Dooku again in Star Wars: Episode III - Revenge of the Sith (2005), and portrayed the father of Willy Wonka, played by Johnny Depp, in the Tim Burton film, Charlie and the Chocolate Factory (2005).
On 16 June 2001, he was created a Commander of the Order of the British Empire in recognition of his services to drama. He was created a Knight Bachelor on 13 June 2009 in the Queen's Birthday Honours List for his services to drama and charity. In addition he was made a Commander of the Order of St John on 16 January 1997.
Lee died at the Chelsea and Westminster Hospital on 7 June 2015 at 8:30 am after being admitted for respiratory problems and heart failure, shortly after celebrating his 93rd birthday there. His wife delayed the public announcement until 11 June, in order to break the news to their family.Sherlock Holmes and the Deadly Necklace (1962)
Sherlock Holmes and the Leading Lady (1991)
Sherlock Holmes: Incident at Victoria Falls (1992)- Actor
- Writer
Douglas Wilmer was born on 8 January 1920 in London, England, UK. He was an actor and writer, known for Octopussy (1983), Jason and the Argonauts (1963) and El Cid (1961). He was married to Anne Harding and Elizabeth Joan Melville. He died on 31 March 2016 in Ipswich, Suffolk, England, UK.Detective: The Speckled Band (1964)
Sherlock Holmes (1964-65)
The Adventure of Sherlock Holmes' Smarter Brother (1975)- Actor
- Writer
- Additional Crew
Actor, composer, songwriter, voiceover artist and author. He joined ASCAP in 1956, and his chief musical collaborators included Tony Romano, Ruby Raksin, Walter Gross, and Ed Brandt. His popular-song compositions include "Hollywood Soliloquy", "The Clown", "Drowning My Sorrow", and "Voice in the Wind".The Famous Adventures of Mr. Magoo: Mr. Magoo's Sherlock Holmes (1965)- Actor
- Additional Crew
When John Neville was in his early sixties, Terry Gilliam cast him in the title role of The Adventures of Baron Munchausen (1988). Although the film was a financial failure, Neville's starring role in this major production, as well as his fine performance, led to an explosion in his career. He afterward received numerous roles in feature films and television. A new generation came to know him from his recurring role in the hit television series The X-Files (1993) and later feature film The X Files (1998), in which he played a mysterious character known only as "The Well-Manicured Man".
He emigrated to Canada in 1972, and took up Canadian citizenship. He was artistic director of the Stratford Festival (Ontario, Canada) from 1984 to 1989.A Study in Terror (1965)- Jerome Raphael was born on 1 November 1925 in Brooklyn, New York, USA. He was an actor, known for Get Smart (1965), Route 66 (1960) and The Connection (1961). He died on 8 November 2012 in Brooklyn, New York, USA.The Double-Barrelled Detective Story (1965)
- Frantisek Husák was born on 24 May 1936 in Prague, Czechoslovakia [now Czech Republic]. He was an actor, known for Closely Watched Trains (1966), Nápady ctenáre detektivek (1966) and Prátelé Bermudského trojúhelníku (1987). He died on 8 November 1991 in Prague, Czech Republic.Nápady ctenáre detektivek (1966)
- Actor
- Writer
- Soundtrack
Eric Morecambe was born on 14 May 1926 in Buxton Street, Morecambe, Lancashire, England, UK. He was an actor and writer, known for The Morecambe & Wise Show (1968), Night Train to Murder (1984) and The Intelligence Men (1965). He was married to Joan Morecambe. He died on 28 May 1984 in Cheltenham, Gloucestershire, England, UK.The Morecambe & Wise Show (1968-77)
Timeshift: Baker Street Babylon (2002)- Jirí Holý was born on 27 November 1922 in Ruzomberok, Czechoslovakia [now Slovakia]. He was an actor, known for Sokolovo (1975), Horoucí srdce (1963) and Dny zrady (1973). He died on 11 November 2009 in Prague, Czech Republic.O tlustém pradedeckovi (1970)
- Actor
- Producer
- Director
Sir Robert's career fell into two distinct parts. In the '60s, he was widely regarded as the heir of Laurence Olivier. But, after his departure from Britain's National Theatre in 1970 and the breakup of his marriage with Maggie Smith three years later, he suffered a slump made worse by heavy drinking. In the '90s, the Royal Shakespeare Company invited him to play first Falstaff in "Henry IV" and then Lear in "King Lear", and this re-established Stephens's career. He was knighted early in 1995.The Private Life of Sherlock Holmes (1970)- Writer
- Actor
- Producer
Born of a prominent Irish journalist in Dublin, Ireland, Dave Allen started out working and touring through English theatres and night clubs. Only occasionally working on radio, he made his first TV appearance on the BBC's "New Faces." He managed to tour with The Beatles while they were still starting out and soon managed to get an eight-month TV engagement called Tonight with Dave Allen (1967), which ended as still one of the most successful shows in Australia. During 1969, he turned from comedy to making documentaries, but then in 1971, he returned to BBC television for Dave Allen at Large (1971), another top-rated show. In 1972, he lived out a lifetime ambition to do plays, soon playing both Mr. Darling and Captain Hook in "Peter Pan" for the London Coliseum. He followed up with two more TV specials in Australia. Floating between stage, television, and more documentaries, he premiered in America in 1981 with "An Evening With Dave Allen." He died suddenly in March 2005.Dave Allen at Large
Season 1: episodes 2, 3, and 5 (1971)
Season 2: episode 3 (1972)
Season 3: episode 4 (1973)
Season 4: episodes 1 and 3 (1975)
Season 5: episode 1 (1976)- Actor
- Soundtrack
Radovan Lukavský was born on 1 November 1919 in Prague, Czechoslovakia [now Czech Republic]. He was an actor, known for Touha Sherlocka Holmese (1971), Horoucí srdce (1963) and Náhrdelník (1992). He died on 10 March 2008 in Prague, Czech Republic.Touha Sherlocka Holmese (1971)- Actor
- Director
- Producer
George C. Scott was an immensely talented actor, a star of the big screen, stage and television. He was born on October 18, 1927 in Wise, Virginia, to Helena Agnes (Slemp) and George Dewey Scott. At the age of eight, his mother died, and his father, an executive at Buick, raised him. In 1945, he joined the United States Marines and spent four years with them, no doubt an inspiration for portraying General George S. Patton years later. When Scott left the Marines, he enrolled in journalism classes at the University of Missouri, but it was while performing in a play there that the acting bug bit him. He has said it "clicked, just like tumblers in a safe."
It was in 1957 that he landed a role in "Richard III" in New York City. The play was a success and brought the young actor to the attention of critics. He soon began to get work on television, mostly in live broadcasts of plays, and he landed the role of the crafty prosecutor in Anatomy of a Murder (1959). It was this role that got him his first Oscar nomination, for Best Supporting Actor.
However, George and Oscar wouldn't actually become the best of friends. In fact, he felt the whole process forced actors to become stars and that the ceremony was little more than a "meat market." In 1962, he was nominated again for Best Supporting Actor, this time opposite Paul Newman in The Hustler (1961), but sent a message saying "No, thanks" and refused the nomination.
However, whether he was being temperamental or simply stubborn in his opinion of awards, it did not seem to stop him from being nominated in the future. "Anatomy" and "The Hustler" were followed by the clever mystery The List of Adrian Messenger (1963), in which he starred alongside Kirk Douglas, Robert Mitchum and cameos by major stars of the time, including Burt Lancaster and Frank Sinatra. It's a must-see, directed by John Huston with tongue deeply in cheek.
The following year, Scott starred as General "Buck" Turgidson in Stanley Kubrick's comical anti-war film Dr. Strangelove or: How I Learned to Stop Worrying and Love the Bomb (1964). This became one of his favorites and he often said that he felt guilty getting paid for it, as he had so much fun making it. Another comedy followed, The Flim-Flam Man (1967), with Scott playing a smooth-talking con artist who takes on an apprentice whom he soon discovers has too many morals.
Three years followed, with some smaller television movies, before he got the role for which he will always be identified: the aforementioned General Patton in Patton (1970). This was a war movie that came at the end of a decade where anti-war protests had rocked a nation and become a symbol of youth dissatisfied with what was expected of them. Still, the actor's portrayal of this aggressive military icon actually drew sympathy for the controversial hero. He won the Oscar this time, but stayed at home watching hockey instead.
A pair of films that he made in the early 1980s were outstanding. The first of these was The Changeling (1980), a film often packaged as a horror movie but one that's really more of a supernatural thriller. He plays John Russell, a composer and music professor who loses his wife and daughter in a tragic accident. Seeking solace, he moves into an archaic mansion that had been unoccupied for 12 years. However, a child-like presence seems to be sharing the house with him and trying to share its secrets with him. From learning of the house's past, he discovers its horrific secret of long ago, a secret that the presence will no longer allow to be kept.
Then he starred -- along with a young cast of then largely unknowns, including Timothy Hutton, Sean Penn and Tom Cruise -- in the intense drama Taps (1981). He played the head of a military academy that's suddenly slated for destruction when the property is sold to local developers who plan to build condos. The students take over the academy when they feel that the regular channels are closed to them.
Scott kept up in films, television and on stage in the later years of his life (Broadway dimmed its lights for one minute on the night of his death). Among his projects were playing Ebenezer Scrooge in a worthy television update of A Christmas Carol (1984), an acclaimed performance on Broadway of "Death of a Salesman", the voice of McLeach in Disney's The Rescuers Down Under (1990) and co-starring roles in television remakes of two classic films, 12 Angry Men (1997) and Inherit the Wind (1999), to name just a few. After his death the accolades poured in, with Jack Lemmon saying, "George was truly one of the greatest and most generous actors I have ever known," while Tony Randall called him "the greatest actor in American history".They Might Be Giants (1971)- Actor
- Writer
- Producer
John Cleese was born on October 27, 1939, in Weston-Super-Mare, England, to Muriel Evelyn (Cross) and Reginald Francis Cleese. He was born into a family of modest means, his father being an insurance salesman; but he was nonetheless sent off to private schools to obtain a good education. Here he was often tormented for his height, having reached a height of six feet by the age of twelve, and eventually discovered that being humorous could deflect aggressive behavior in others. He loved humor in and of itself, collected jokes, and, like many young Britons who would grow up to be comedians, was devoted to the radio comedy show, "The Goon Show," starring the legendary Peter Sellers, Spike Milligan, and Harry Secombe.
Cleese did well in both sports and academics, but his real love was comedy. He attended Cambridge to read (study) Law, but devoted a great deal of time to the university's legendary Footlights group, writing and performing in comedy reviews, often in collaboration with future fellow Python Graham Chapman. Several of these comedy reviews met with great success, including one in particular which toured under the name "Cambridge Circus." When Cleese graduated, he went on to write for the BBC, then rejoined Cambridge Circus in 1964, which toured New Zealand and America. He remained in America after leaving Cambridge Circus, performing and doing a little journalism, and here met Terry Gilliam, another future Python.
Returning to England, he began appearing in a BBC radio series, "I'm Sorry, I'll Read That Again", based on Cambridge Circus. It ran for several years and also starred future Goodies Tim Brooke-Taylor, Bill Oddie and Graeme Garden. He also appeared, briefly, with Brooke-Taylor, Graham Chapman and Marty Feldman in At Last the 1948 Show (1967), for television, and a series of collaborations with some of the finest comedy-writing talent in England at the time, some of whom - Eric Idle, Terry Gilliam, Terry Jones, Michael Palin, and Chapman - eventually joined him in Monty Python. These programs included The Frost Report (1966) and Marty Feldman's program Marty (1968). Eventually, however, the writers were themselves collected to be the talent for their own program, Monty Python's Flying Circus (1969), which displayed a strange and completely absorbing blend of low farce and high-concept absurdist humor, and remains influential to this day.
After three seasons of the intensity of Monty Python, Cleese left the show, though he collaborated with one or more of the other Pythons for decades to come, including the Python movies released in the mid-70s to early 80s - Monty Python and the Holy Grail (1975), Life of Brian (1979), Monty Python Live at the Hollywood Bowl (1982), and The Meaning of Life (1983). Cleese and then-wife Connie Booth collaborated in the legendary television series Fawlty Towers (1975), as the sharp-tongued, rude, bumbling yet somehow lovable proprietor of an English seaside hotel. Cleese based this character on a proprietor he had met while staying with the other Pythons at a hotel in Torquay, England. Only a dozen episodes were made, but each is truly hilarious, and he is still closely associated with the program to this day.
Meanwhile Cleese had established a production company, Video Arts, for clever business training videos in which he generally starred, which were and continue to be enormously successful in the English-speaking world. He continues to act prolifically in movies, including in the hit comedy A Fish Called Wanda (1988), in the Harry Potter series, and in the James Bond series as the new Q, starting with The World Is Not Enough (1999), in which he began as R before graduating to Q. Cleese also supplies his voice to numerous animated and video projects, and frequently does commercials.
Besides the infamous Basil Fawlty character, Cleese's other well-known trademark is his rendition of an English upper-class toff. He has a daughter with Connie Booth and a daughter with his second wife, Barbara Trentham.
Education and learning are important elements of his life - he was Rector of the University of Saint Andrews from 1973 until 1976, and continues to be a professor-at-large of Cornell University in New York. Cleese lives in Santa Barbara, California.Comedy Playhouse: Elementary, My Dear Watson: The Strange Case of the Dead Solicitors (1973)
The Strange Case of the End of Civilization as We Know It (1977)- Jerry Dexter was born on 18 April 1935 in San Francisco, California, USA. He was an actor, known for Spider-Man and His Amazing Friends (1981), The Superman/Aquaman Hour of Adventure (1967) and The Adventures of Gulliver (1968). He died on 21 June 2013 in Sonoma, California, USA.[Sherlock Rogers]
Goober and the Ghost Chasers: Is Sherlock Holme? (1973) - Michael Blagdon is known for The Seven-Per-Cent Solution (1976).The Seven-Percent Solution/Young Holmes (1976)
- Actor
- Producer
- Director
The son of a legendary actress (Mary Martin) and a district attorney, Larry Martin Hagman was born on September 21, 1931 in Fort Worth, Texas. After his parents' divorce, he moved to Los Angeles, California to live with his grandmother. When he was 12, his grandmother died and he moved back to his mother's place, who had remarried and was launching a Broadway career. After attending Bard College in New York State, he decided to follow his mother's acting road. His first stage tryout was with the Margo Jones Theatre-in-the-Round in Dallas, Texas. He then appeared in the New York City Center production of "Taming the Shrew", followed by a year in regional theater. In his early-to-mid twenties, Larry moved to England as a member of the cast of his mother's stage show, "South Pacific", and was a member of the cast for five years. After that, he enlisted in the United States Air Force, where he produced and directed several series for members of the service.
After completing his service in the Air Force, Larry returned to New York City for a series of Broadway and off-Broadway plays, esp. "Once Around the Block", "Career", "Comes a Day", "A Priest in the House", "The Beauty Part", "The Warm Peninsula", "The Nervous Set" among many others. He began his television career in 1961 with a number of guest appearances on shows as "The ALCOA Hour". He was later chosen to be in the popular daytime soap opera The Edge of Night (1956), in which he starred for two years. But that was his start, he later went on to become the friendliest television star in the NBC sitcom I Dream of Jeannie (1965), in which he played the amiable astronaut Anthony Nelson. In the series, his life was endangered by this gorgeous blonde bombshell genie played by Barbara Eden. The series ran for five years and after that, he continued his success in The Good Life (1971) and Here We Go Again (1973), as well as a number of guest-starring roles on many series. He was also with Lauren Bacall in the television version of the hit Broadway musical Applause (1973).
In 1977, the soap opera Dallas (1978) came aboard and Larry's career was secured. He credits "Superchick" for convincing him to do the show. This program of an excessively rich Texas family, was one of the best, beloved, most-watched shows of all time as he portrayed the role of the evil yet perverted millionaire J.R. Ewing, the man who loved to be hated. The series ran for an amazing 14 1/2 seasons and the "Who shot J.R.?" episode remains the second highly-rated television show in the history of the satellite. Since his name was familiar with Texas, it was suiting that he hosted "Lone Star" (1985), an eight-part documentary series related to the history of Texas, for the Public Television Stations. That aired while celebrating the 150th anniversary of Texas as an independent republic. In the spring of 1987, Kari-Lorimar released "Larry Hagman--Stop Smoking for Life". Proceeds from this home video were donated to the American Cancer Society.
In July 1995, he needed a liver transplant in order for him to regain his life back after years of strong drinking that led to cirrhosis. He went over to Cedars-Sinai Medical Center for this where he spent seven weeks in the hospital, and an operation took 16 hours but saved his life. In July 1996, one year after he had a new liver, he served as the National Spokesperson for the 1996 U.S. Transplant Games presented by the National Kidney Foundation and, on November 2, he later received the Award for his efforts in escalating public awareness of the concept of organ donation. He continued to serve as an advocate of organ donation and transplantation until his death. In November 1996, he starred in Dallas: J.R. Returns (1996), a 2-hour movie in which the ratings were a huge success for CBS, as well as in the network's drama series Orleans (1997) when his role of Judge Luther Charbonnet gave him some of the best reviews of his 36-year-career.
When he was feeling better than he had for so many years, he completed his two movie projects: The Third Twin (1997), a four-hour miniseries based on the author's best-selling novel, that aired on CBS, and Mike Nichols's Primary Colors (1998), a film based on the best-selling book by a journalist, Joe Klein. Starring in that film were John Travolta, Emma Thompson, Billy Bob Thornton, Kathy Bates and Adrian Lester. Larry played Governor Picker, an antipolitics politician who stands a grave danger crisis to the governor's bid for office. Primary Colors was his second presidential film having also appeared in Oliver Stone's Nixon (1995). Following these movies, his second Dallas reunion movie, Dallas: War of the Ewings (1998), aired on CBS. He also served as executive producer.
Away from films, Larry was actively involved in a series of civic and philanthropic events. An adamant non-smoker, he served as the chairperson of the American Cancer Society's "Great American Smokeout", from 1981 to 1992. Larry Hagman died at age 81 on November 23, 2012 at Medical City Dallas Hospital in Dallas, Texas from complications of throat cancer.The Return of the World's Greatest Detective/Sherman Holmes (1976)- Actor
- Writer
- Producer
Jim Henson never thought that he would make a name of himself in puppetry; it was merely a way of getting himself on television. The vehicle that achieved it was Sam and Friends (1955), a late-night puppet show that was on after the 11:00 news in Washington DC. It proved to be very popular and inspired Jim to continue using puppets for his work. He made many commercials, developing the signature humor that Henson Productions is known for. A key reason for the success of his puppets is that Jim realized he didn't need to hide puppeteers behind a structure when they were in front of a camera. All he had to do was instruct the camera operators to focus on the puppets and keep the puppeteers out of the frame. This allowed the puppets to dominate the image and make them more lifelike. This work on puppets and television would lead to separate projects that had different goals. The first one was his work on the The Jimmy Dean Show (1963) with the character Rowlf the Dog, the oldest clearly identified character that Henson Productions still uses. This show provided an income that allowed Jim to work on a pet project. That project was Time Piece (1965), a surrealistic short about time which was nominated for best live-action short Oscar. Henson shot to prominence when he was approached to use his muppets for the revolutionary educational show Sesame Street (1969). The show was a smash hit and his characters have become staples on public television. Unforetunately, this also led to Henson being typecast as only an entertainer for children. He sought to disprove that by being part of the initial crew of Saturday Night Live (1975), but his style and that of the creative staff simply didn't jibe. It was this circumstance that encouraged him to develop a variety show format that had the kind of sophisticated humor that "Sesame Street (1969)" didn't work with. No American broadcaster was interested, but British producer Lew Grade was. This led to The Muppet Show (1976). It initially struggled both in the ratings and in the search for guest stars, but in the second season it became a smash hit and would eventually become the most widely watched series in television history. Hungry for a new challenge, Henson made The Muppet Movie (1979), defying the popular industry opinion that his characters would never work in a movie. The film became a hit and spawned a series of features which included the moody fantasy The Dark Crystal (1982), which was a drastic and bold departure from the amiable tone of his previous work. The most successful TV work in the 1980s was Fraggle Rock (1983), a fantasy series specifically designed to appeal to as many cultural groups as possible. During this time he also established the Creature Shop, a puppet studio that became renowned for being as brilliant with puppetry as ILM was at special effects. When he died all too soon in 1990, he was indisputably one of the geniuses of puppetry. More importantly, he was a man who achieved his phenomenal success while still retaining his social conscience and artistic integrity as his work in promoting environmentalism and his brilliant The Storyteller (1987) series respectively attest to.[Rolf as Sherlock Holmes]
The Muppet Show: Sherlock Holmes and the Case of the Disappearing Clues (1976)- Actor
- Additional Crew
- Producer
Roger Moore will perhaps always be remembered as the man who replaced Sean Connery in the James Bond series, arguably something he never lived down.
Roger George Moore was born on October 14, 1927 in Stockwell, London, England, the son of Lillian (Pope) and George Alfred Moore, a policeman. His mother was born in Calcutta, India, to a British family. Roger first wanted to be an artist, but got into films full time after becoming an extra in the late 1940s. He came to the United States in 1953. Suave, extremely handsome, and an excellent actor, he received a contract with Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer. His initial foray met with mixed success, with movies like Diane (1956) and Interrupted Melody (1955), as well as The Last Time I Saw Paris (1954).
Moore went into television in the 1950s on series such as Ivanhoe (1958) and The Alaskans (1959), but probably received the most recognition from Maverick (1957), as cousin Beau. He received his big breakthrough, at least internationally, as The Saint (1962). The series made him a superstar and he became very successful thereafter. Moore ended his run as the Saint, and was one of the premier stars of the world, but he was not catching on in America. In an attempt to change this, he agreed to star with Tony Curtis on ITC's The Persuaders! (1971), but although hugely popular in Europe, it did not catch on in the United States and was canceled. Just prior to making the series, he starred in The Man Who Haunted Himself (1970), which proved there was far more to Moore than the light-hearted roles he had previously accepted.
He was next offered and accepted the role of James Bond, and once audiences got used to the change of style from Connery's portrayal, they also accepted him. Live and Let Die (1973), his first Bond movie, grossed more outside of America than Diamonds Are Forever (1971); Connery's last outing as James Bond. He went on to star in another six Bond films, before bowing out after A View to a Kill (1985). He was age 57 at the time the film was made and was looking a little too old for Bond - it was possibly one film too many. In between times, there had been more success with appearances in films such as That Lucky Touch (1975), Shout at the Devil (1976), The Wild Geese (1978), Escape to Athena (1979) and North Sea Hijack (1980).
Despite his fame from the Bond films and many others, the United States never completely took to him until he starred in The Cannonball Run (1981) alongside Burt Reynolds, a success there. After relinquishing his role as Bond, his work load tended to diminish a little, though he did star in the American box office flop Feuer, Eis & Dynamit (1990), as well as the comedy Bullseye! (1990), with Michael Caine. He did the overlooked comedy Bed & Breakfast (1991), as well as the television movie The Man Who Wouldn't Die (1994), and then the major Jean-Claude Van Damme flop The Quest (1996). Moore then took second rate roles such as Spice World (1997), and the American television series The Dream Team (1999). Although his film work slowed down, he was still in the public eye, be it appearing on television chat shows or hosting documentaries.
Roger Moore was appointed Commander of the Order of the British Empire on December 31, 1998 in the New Years Honours for services to UNICEF, and was promoted to Knight Commander of the same order on June 14, 2003 in the Queen's Birthday Honours for services to the charities UNICEF and Kiwanis International.
Roger Moore died of cancer on 23 May, 2017, in Switzerland. He was 89.Sherlock Holmes in New York (1976)- Actor
- Director
- Producer
Leonard Simon Nimoy was born in Boston, Massachusetts, to Dora (Spinner) and Max Nimoy, who owned a barbershop. His parents were Ukrainian Jewish immigrants. Raised in a tenement and acting in community theaters since age eight, Nimoy did not make his Hollywood debut until he was 20, with a bit part in Queen for a Day (1951) and another as a ballplayer in the perennial Rhubarb (1951). After two years in the United States Army, he was still getting small, often uncredited parts, like an Army telex operator in Them! (1954). His part as Narab, a Martian finally friendly to Earth, in the closing scene in the corny Republic serial Zombies of the Stratosphere (1952), somewhat foreshadowed the role which would make him a household name: Mr. Spock, the half-human/half-Vulcan science officer on Star Trek (1966) one of television's all-time most successful series. His performance won him three Emmy nominations and launched his career as a writer and director, notably of Star Trek IV: The Voyage Home (1986), the story of a humpback whale rescue that proved the most successful of the Star Trek movies. Stage credits have included "Fiddler on the Roof", "Oliver", "Camelot" and "Equus". He has hosted the well-known television series In Search of... (1977) and Ancient Mysteries (1994), authored several volumes of poetry and guest-starred on two episodes of The Simpsons (1989). In the latter years of his career, he played Mustafa Mond in NBC's telling of Aldous Huxley's Brave New World (1998), voiced Sentinel Prime in the blockbuster Transformers: Dark of the Moon (2011), and played Spock again in two new Star Trek films, Star Trek (2009) and Star Trek Into Darkness (2013).
Leonard Nimoy died on February 27, 2015 in Bel Air, Los Angeles, California, of end-stage chronic obstructive pulmonary disease. He was 83.Sherlock Holmes: The Interior Motive (1976)
Timeshift: Baker Street Babylon (2002)- Actor
- Additional Crew
- Soundtrack
Nicol Williamson was an enormously talented actor who was considered by some critics to be the finest actor of his generation in the late 1960s and the 1970s, rivaled only by Albert Finney, whom Williamson bested in the classics. Williamson's 1969 "Hamlet" at the Roundhouse Theatre was a sensation in London, considered by many to be the best limning of The Dane since the definitive 20th-century portrayal by John Gielgud, a performance in that period, rivaled in kudos only by Richard Burton's 1964 Broadway performance. In a sense, Williamson and Burton were the last two great Hamlets of the century. Finney's Hamlet was a failure, and while Derek Jacobi's turn as The Dane was widely hailed by English critics, he lacked the charisma and magnetism -- the star power -- of a Williamson or Burton.
Playwright John Osborne, whose play "Inadmissible Evidence" was a star vehicle for Williamson in London's West End and on Broadway, called him "the greatest actor since Marlon Brando." While it was unlikely that Williamson could ever achieved the film reputation of Brando (who but Brando did?) or the superstar status that Burton obtained and then lost, his inability to maintain a consistent film career most likely is a result of his own well-noted eccentricities than it is from any deficiency in acting skills.
The great critic and raconteur Kenneth Tynan (Laurence Olivier's first dramaturg at the National Theatre) wrote a 1971 profile of Williamson that elucidated the problem with this potentially great performer. Williamson's Hamlet had wowed Prime Minister Harold Wilson, and Wilson in turn raved about his performance to President Richard Nixon. Nixon invited Williamson to stage a one-man show at the White House, which was a success. However, in the same time period, Williamson's reputation was tarred by his erratic behavior during the North American tour of "Hamlet". In Boston he stopped during a performance and berated the audience, which led one cast member to publicly apologize to the Boston audience. Williamson would be involved in an even more famous incident on Broadway a generation later.
Even before the Boston incident, Williamson had made headlines when, during the Philadelphia tryout of "Inadmissible Evidence," he struck producer David Merrick whilst defending Anthony Page. In 1976 he slapped a fellow actor during the curtain call for the Broadway musical "Rex." Fifteen years later, his co-star in the Broadway production of "I Hate Hamlet" was terrified of him after Williamson whacked the actor on his buttocks with a sword, after the actor had abandoned the choreography.
A great stage actor, who also did a memorable "Macbeth" in London and on Broadway, Williamson was twice nominated for Tony Awards as Best Actor (Dramatic), in 1966 for Osborne's "Inadmissible Evidence" (a performance he recreated in the film version) and in 1974 for a revival of "Uncle Vanya." On film, Williamson was superb in many roles, such as the suicidal Irish soldier in The Bofors Gun (1968) and Tony Richardson's Hamlet (1969). He got his chance playing leads, such as Sherlock Holmes in The Seven-Per-Cent Solution (1976) and Castle in Otto Preminger's The Human Factor (1979), and was competent if not spectacular, likely diminished by deficiencies in the scripts rather than his own talent. Richardson also replaced Williamson's rival as Hamlet, Burton, in his adaptation of Vladimir Nabokov's Laughter in the Dark (1969).
It was in supporting work that he excelled in film in the 1970s and 1980s. He was quite effective as a supporting actor, such as his Little John to Sean Connery's Robin Hood in Richard Lester's Robin and Marian (1976), was brilliant in I'm Dancing as Fast as I Can (1982) and gave a performance for the ages (albeit in the scenery-chewing category as Merlin) in Excalibur (1981). His Merlin lives on as one of the most enjoyable performances ever caught on film.
Then it was over. While the film work didn't dry up, it didn't reach the heights anymore. He failed to harness that enormous talent and convert it into memorable film performances. He did good work as Louis Mountbatten in a 1986 TV-movie, but the roles became more sporadic, and after 1997 this great actor no longer appeared in motion pictures.
Williamson's eccentricities showed themselves again in the early 1990s. When appearing as the ghost of John Barrymore in the 1991 Broadway production of Paul Rudnick's "I Hate Hamlet" on Broadway in 1991, Williamson's co-star quit the play after being thumped on the buttocks with a sword during a stage fight. Although critics hailed the performances of the understudy as a "vast improvement" it caused a sensation in the press. Despite good reviews, the play lasted only 100 performances.
Surprisingly, Williamson never won an Oscar nomination, yet that never was a game he seemed to play. In 1970, after his Hamlet triumph, he turned down a six-figure salary to appear as Enobarbus in Charlton Heston's film of Shakespeare's Antony and Cleopatra (1972)_. The role was played by Eric Porter, but his choice was justified in that the film was derided as a vanity production and savaged by critics).
Williamson had been a staple on Broadway, even using his fine singing voice to appear as Henry VIII in the Broadway musical "Rex" In 1976. He has not appeared on the Great White Way since his own one-man show about John Barrymore that he himself crafted, "Jack: A Night on the Town with John Barrymore," which had enormously successful runs, both at the Criterion Theater in London, and The Geffen Theater in Los Angeles playing to packed houses, before closing on Broadway after only 12 performances in 1996.
The "I Hate Hamlet" and "Jack" shows are still talked about on Broadway. Williamson has joined the ranks of Barrymore, Burton, and Brando, in that they have become phantoms who haunt the theater and film that they they served so admirably on the one hand but failed on the other. All enormously gifted artists, perhaps possessed of genius, they were discombobulated by that gift that became their curse, the burden of dreams -- the dreams of their audiences, their collaborators, their critics. While there is a wistfulness over the loss of such greatness, there is a relief offered, not so much from a moral tale, but as a release from guilt for the run-of-the-mill artists lacking such genius. One can be comforted by the fact that while one lacks the pearl of such a talent, they also lack the irritating genius that engenders that pearl.The Seven-Per-Cent Solution (1976)- Actor
- Producer
- Music Department
Legendary actor Christopher Plummer, perhaps Canada's greatest thespian, delivered outstanding performances as Sherlock Holmes in Murder by Decree (1979), the chilling villain in The Silent Partner (1978), the iconoclastic Mike Wallace in The Insider (1999), the empathetic psychiatrist in A Beautiful Mind (2001), the kindly and clever mystery writer in Knives Out (2019), and as Leo Tolstoy in The Last Station (2009). It was this last role that finally brought him recognition from the Academy of Motion Picture Arts & Sciences, when he was nominated as Best Actor in a Supporting Role, one of three Academy Award nominations he received in the 2010s, along with All the Money in the World (2017) (as J. Paul Getty) and Beginners (2010); he won for the latter role. He will also likely always be remembered as Captain Von Trapp in the atomic bomb-strength blockbuster The Sound of Music (1965), a film he publicly despised until softening his stance in his autobiography "In Spite of Me" (2008).
Christopher Plummer was born Arthur Christopher Orme Plummer on December 13, 1929 in Toronto, Ontario. He was the only child of Isabella Mary (Abbott), a secretary to the Dean of Sciences at McGill University, and John Orme Plummer, who sold securities and stocks. Christopher was a great-grandson of John Abbott, who was Canada's third Prime Minister (from 1891 to 1892), and a great-great-great-grandson of Presbyterian clergyman John Bethune. He had Scottish, English, Anglo-Irish, and Cornish ancestry. Plummer was raised in Senneville, Quebec, near Montreal, at his maternal grandparents' home.
Aside from the youngest member of the Barrymore siblings (which counted Oscar-winners Ethel Barrymore and Lionel Barrymore in their number), Plummer was the premier Shakespearean actor to come out of North America in the 20th century. He was particularly memorable as Hamlet, Iago and Lear, though his Macbeth opposite Glenda Jackson was -- and this was no surprise to him due to the famous curse attached to the "Scottish Play" -- a failure.
Like another great stage actor, Richard Burton, early in his career Plummer failed to connect with the screen in a way that would make him a star. Dynamic on stage, he didn't succeed as a younger leading man in films. Perhaps if he had been born earlier, and acted in the studio system of Hollywood's golden age, he could have been carefully groomed for stardom. As it was, he shared the English stage actors' disdain -- and he was equally at home in London as he was on the boards of Broadway or on-stage in his native Canada -- for the movies, which did not help him in that medium, as he has confessed. As he aged, Plummer excelled at character roles. He was always a good villain, this man who garnered kudos playing Lucifer on Broadway in Archibald Macleish's Pulitzer Prize-winning "J.B.".
Plummer won two Emmy Awards out of seven nominations stretching 46 years from 1959 and 2011, and one Genie Award in six nominations from 1980 to 2009. For his stage work, Plummer has racked up two Tony Awards on six nominations, the first in 1974 as Best Actor (Musical) for the title role in "Cyrano" and the second in 1997, as Best Actor (Play), in "Barrymore". Surprisingly, he did not win (though he was nominated) for his masterful 2004 performance of "King Lear", which he originated at the Stratford Festival in Ontario and brought down to Broadway for a sold-out run. His other Tony nominations show the wide range of his talent, from a 1959 nod for the Elia Kazan-directed production of Macleish's "J.B." to recognition in 1994 for Harold Pinter's "No Man's Land", with a 1982 Best Actor (Play) nomination for his "Iago" in William Shakespeare's "Othello".
Until the 2009 Academy Awards were announced, it could be said about Plummer that he was the finest actor of the post-World War II period to fail to get an Academy Award. In that, he was following in the footsteps of the late great John Barrymore, whom Plummer so memorably portrayed on Broadway in a one-man show that brought him his second Tony Award. In 2010, Plummer finally got an Oscar nod for his portrayal of another legend, Lev Tolstoy in The Last Station (2009). Two years later, the first paragraph of his obituary was written when the 82-year-old Plummer became the oldest person in Academy history to win an Oscar. He won for playing a senior citizen who comes out as gay after the death of his wife in the movie Beginners (2010). As he clutched his statuette, the debonaire thespian addressed it thus: "You're only two years older than me darling, where have you been all of my life?"
Plummer then told the audience that at birth, "I was already rehearsing my Academy acceptance speech, but it was so long ago mercifully for you I've forgotten it." The Academy Award was a long time in coming and richly deserved.
Plummer gave many other fine portrayals on film, particularly as he grew older and settled down into a comfortable marriage with his third wife Elaine. He continued to be an in-demand character actor in prestigious motion pictures. If he were English rather than Canadian, he would have been knighted. (In 1968, he was appointed Companion of the Order of Canada, the country's highest civilian honor and one which required the approval of the sovereign, Queen Elizabeth II.) If he lived in the company town of Los Angeles rather than in Connecticut, he likely would have several more Oscar nominations before winning his first for "The Last Station".
As it is, as attested to in his witty and well-written autobiography, Plummer was amply rewarded in life. In 1970, Plummer - then a self-confessed 43-year-old "bottle baby" - married his third wife Elaine Taylor, a dancer, who helped wean him off his dependency on alcohol. They lived happily with their dogs on a 30-acre estate in Weston, Connecticut. He thanked her from the stage during the 2012 Oscar telecast, quipping that she "deserves the Nobel Peace Prize for coming to my rescue every day of my life." Although he spent the majority of his time in the United States, he remained a Canadian citizen. He died in his Weston, Connecticut home on February 5, 2021 at age 91.
His daughter, with actress Tammy Grimes, is actress Amanda Plummer.The Sunday Drama: Silver Blaze (1977)
Murder by Decree (1979)
Blackheart/Holmes (1998)- Actor
- Writer
- Producer
One of four stars of the London and New York revues Beyond the Fringe and Beyond the Fringe (with Jonathan Miller, Alan Bennett, and Dudley Moore). Later created scatological comedy routine "Derek & Clive" with Moore.The Hound of the Baskervilles (1978)- Actor
- Writer
- Director
Vasili Borisovich Livanov was born on July 19, 1935, in Moscow, into the family of famous Russian actors. His grandfather, named Nikolai Livanov, was a notable theatre actor in Moscow. His father, named Boris Livanov, was a leading actor of the Moscow Art Theatre and a personal friend of Boris Pasternak, Aleksandr Dovzhenko, Nikolay Cherkasov, Olga Knipper-Chekhova and other Russian cultural figures. His mother, named Evgenia Kazimirovna, was a professional artist.
Young Livanov was brought up in a highly intellectual environment. He was reading voraciously and also demonstrated his gift of an artist in numerous drawings and portraits. From 1950-1954 he studied as an artist at the Moscow Art School at the Academy of Fine Arts. In 1954 he passed the admissions exams to the Surikov Art Institute, but then he decided to become an actor, like his father. From 1954-1958 he studied acting under Boris Zakhava at Shchukin Theatrical School, from which he graduated with honors in 1958. After graduation he joined the troupe of Vakhtangov Theatre for two seasons. From 1960-1964 Livanov was a permanent member of Moscow Theatre-Studio of Film Actors. He studied directing under Mikhail Romm for two years at the Supreme School of Directing at Goskino USSR, from which he graduated as an animation film director in 1966.
Livanov made his film debut in 1959, in a supporting role of a geologist in 'Neotpravlennoe pismo' (The Unmailed Letter 1959). Director 'Mikhail Kalatozov' was filming Livanov's scenes during a cold Russian winter storm, recording Livanov's voice live in the wind of a snowstorm, after which Livanov suffered a sore throat and obtained his hallmark hoarse voice. His breakthrough role came in 'Kollegi' (Colleagues 1962), an adaptation of the eponymous novel by Vasiliy Aksyonov. He enjoyed a steady film career as a supporting actor during the 60's and 70's. Livanov's hoarse voice became the hallmark voice of the famous Russian cartoon characters - Karlsson and Crocodile Gena. He also contributed to over a hundred other Russian cartoon productions made at Soyuzmultfilm Studio in Moscow. Livanov wrote several film scripts and plays, of which the animated 'Bremenskie muzikanty' (1970) became a popular hit. His story 'Moy lyubimy kloun' (My Favourite Clown) was adapted into an eponymous film starring Oleg Menshikov.
Vasili Livanov shot to international fame during the 1980's, when he was starring as Sherlock Holmes in the popular Russian TV series by director Igor Maslennikov. Livanov portrayed Sherlock Holmes as a refined intellectual, who is very elegant and English-looking in both demeanor and facial appearance. In 2000 Livanov and his co-star Vitali Solomin were voted the best impersonators of Sherlock Holmes and Doctor Watson in a poll by English press. For his portrayal of Sherlock Holmes, Livanov was decorated with the Order of the British Empire of the second degree (2006), becoming the first Russian film actor to receive such an honor.
Vasili Livanov was designated with the title of People's Artist of Russia (1988) and received numerous awards for his works in film and television. From 1988-1992 he was Artistic Director of Moscow Experimental Theatre "Detective" in collaboration with Yulian Semyonov. During the 1990's he wrote a series of fairy-tales for children. In 2002 Livanov published a comprehensive book about Boris Pasternak based on his own research and meetings with the writer. Vasili Livanov is living in Moscow, Russia.Sherlok Kholms i doktor Vatson (1979)
Priklyucheniya Sherloka Kholmsa i doktora Vatsona (1980)
Priklyucheniya Sherloka Kholmsa i doktora Vatsona: Sobaka Baskerviley (1981)
Priklyucheniya Sherloka Kholmsa i doktora Vatsona: Sokrovishcha Agry (1983)
My S Sherlokom Holmsom (1985)
Priklyucheniya Sherloka Kholmsa i doktora Vatsona: Dvadtsatyy vek nachinaetsya (1986)
Vospominanie o Sherloke Kholmse (2000)- He may well be the only professional actor to have played both Sherlock Holmes and his arch nemesis, having interpreted the great detective in Sherlock Holmes and Doctor Watson (1980) on TV and the 'Napoleon of Crime' Professor Moriarty in the burlesque spoof The Newly Discovered Casebook of Sherlock Holmes in front of a live audience on radio.
A RADA graduate of 1960, Geoffrey Whitehead has been prolific in classical roles on the stage with the Bristol Old Vic and during several seasons with the ensemble of the Royal Shakespeare Company. On television from 1962, he has made guest appearances in The Avengers (1961), The Rivals of Sherlock Holmes (1971), Reilly: Ace of Spies (1983), Scarecrow and Mrs. King (1983) and Poirot (1989). During four seasons of the police series Z Cars (1962), he portrayed two separate characters: PC Ken Baker (season 4) and DS Wilf Miller (seasons 7, 8 and 10). Another regular role saw him as the managing director of a large property firm in the drama series Second Thoughts (1991), set in the dog-eat-dog world of high-powered business.
Whitehead has often played powerful or influential personae in period drama, those including the dour, austere suitor St. John Rivers in Jane Eyre (1973), Roman general Scipio Africanus in The Cleopatras (1983), Russian statesman Vasily Golitsyn in Peter the Great (1986), family lawyer to the famous Austrian family of composers in Strauss Dynasty (1991) and a doctor in BBC's excellent adaptation of Little Dorrit (2008).
Equally proficient in comedy, he co-starred on TV in Second Thoughts (1991) (as boss of a style magazine), Reggie Perrin (2009) (as Reggie's food-obsessed father-in-law), Still Open All Hours (2013) (Wilburn Newbold) and in the long-running sitcom Not Going Out (2006) (Geoffrey Adams). On BBC Radio 4's Bleak Expectations, he voiced assorted doomed members of five evil families (the Hardthrashers, Sternbeaters, Whackwallops, Grimpunches and Clampvultures) in a pastiche of the classic Ealing comedy Kind Hearts and Coronets (1949). Whitehead also provided the voice for Death in radio adaptations of Terry Pratchett's novels Eric and Mort.
Whitehead has been married since 1962 to the Irish-born stage and screen actress Mary Hanefey.Sherlock Holmes and Doctor Watson (1979-80) - Algimantas Masiulis was born on 10 July 1931 in Surdegis, Anyksciu, Lithuania. He was an actor, known for Diamonds for the Dictatorship of the Proletariat (1975), The Ballad of the Valiant Knight Ivanhoe (1983) and Treasure Island (1972). He died on 19 August 2008 in Vilnius, Lithuania.Goluboy karbunkul (1980)
- Actor
- Additional Crew
Keith McConnell was born on 16 July 1923 in Dublin, Ireland. He was an actor, known for Mutiny on the Bounty (1962), Time After Time (1979) and CBS Children's Mystery Theatre (1980). He died on 6 October 1987 in Los Angeles, California, USA.CBS Children's Mystery Theatre: The Treasure of Alpheus T. Winterborn (1980)- Alberto Olmedo was born in Rosario, Santa Fe, Argentina, on August 24, 1933. He began to work from 6 years old (at a greengrocer's shop); he had a very hard childhood. Olmedo or "El negro" - this way his family and friends were saying to him, not have time to dream of being an actor. He had to study and help his single mother.
But at the age of 14, Olmedo began to work as tap dancing in the theatre (La Comedia de Rosario), as rented public; his mission was to initiate the plaudits when the people was indifferent. The "Negro" remained fascinated with this universe, and began to frequent clubs and to work as imitator (Lola Flores, Miguel de Molina, between others), small roles in comedies, and some steps of dance.
With twenty years old, Olmedo moved to Buenos Aires, and he obtained employment in Channel 7 as Camera Director. On TV, Olmedo created a very dear personage, the Capital Piluso, and from this moment his reputation grew, turning in a TV star.
Then came "No toca botón" and tons of extraordinary personages like "El Manosanta", "Rogelio Roldán", "Grotovsky and Stalisnavsky", "Chiquito Reyes", and many other, that led to theatre and cinema with equal success.
He died very young after falling from the ninth floor of a building, in Mar del Plata, one evening of March, 1988, leaving all the Argentinians sadder than never, and forever.Alberto y Susana: Si Sherlock Holmes Hubiera Sido Cordobes (1980) - Actor
- Producer
- Soundtrack
Frank Langella was born in Bayonne, New Jersey, to Angelina and Frank A. Langella, a business executive. He is of Italian descent.
A stage and screen actor of extreme versatility, Frank Langella won acclaim on the New York stage in "Seascape" and followed it up with the title role in the Edward Gorey production of "Dracula". He repeated the role for the screen in Dracula (1979) and became an international star. Over the years, he has done occasional films but prefers to concentrate on his first love, the legitimate theatre. His stage performance ranged from Strindberg drama ("The Father") to Noël Coward comedy ("Present Laughter"). He also appeared in several productions for the New York Shakespeare festival.Standing Room Only: Sherlock Holmes (1981)- Actor
- Writer
One of Britain's most recognizable (and most larger-than-life) character actors, Tom Baker is best known for his record-setting seven-year stint as the Fourth Doctor in Doctor Who (1963). He was born in 1934 in Liverpool, to Mary Jane (Fleming) and John Stewart Baker. His father was of English and Scottish descent, while his mother's family was originally from Ireland. Tom, along with his younger sister, Lulu, and younger brother, John, was raised in a poor Catholic community by his mother, a house-cleaner and barmaid, who was a devout Catholic, and his father, a sailor, who was rarely at home.
At age fifteen, Baker left school to become a monk with the Brothers of Ploermel on the island of Jersey. Six years later, he abandoned the monastic life and performed his National Service in the Royal Army Medical Corps., where he became interested in acting. Baker then served on the Queen Mary for seven months as a sailor in the Merchant Navy before attending Rose Bruford College of Speech and Drama in Kent, England, on scholarship.
Baker acted in repertory theaters around Britain until the late 1960s when he joined up with the National Theatre, where he performed with such respected actors as Maggie Smith, Anthony Hopkins and Laurence Olivier, who helped him get his first prominent film role as Rasputin in Nicholas and Alexandra (1971). His performance in this film earned him two Golden Globe Award nominations, one for best actor in a supporting role and another for best new star of the year. A couple of years earlier, Baker had made his theatrical film debut in The Winter's Tale (1967).
Despite appearances in a spate of films, including The Canterbury Tales (1972), The Vault of Horror (1973), The Golden Voyage of Sinbad (1973) and The Mutations (1974), Baker found himself in a career lull and working as a labourer at a building site. However, the BBC's Head of Serials, William Slater, who had directed Baker in BBC Play of the Month (1965), recommended him to producer Barry Letts, who was looking for a replacement for Jon Pertwee as the Fourth Doctor in Doctor Who (1963). Baker's performance in The Golden Voyage of Sinbad (1973) convinced Letts that he was right for it. It brought Baker international fame and popularity. He played the role for seven years, longer than any actor before or since.
After leaving Doctor Who (1963) in 1981, Baker returned to theatre and made occasional television and film appearances, playing Sherlock Holmes in The Hound of the Baskervilles (1982), Puddleglum in The Chronicles of Narnia story The Silver Chair (1990) and Hallvarth, Clan Leader of the Hunter Elves, in Dungeons & Dragons (2000).The Hound of the Baskervilles (1982)- Writer
- Actor
- Music Department
Kenny Everett was born on 25 December 1944 in Seaforth, Liverpool, England, UK. He was a writer and actor, known for Bloodbath at the House of Death (1984), Bohemian Rhapsody (2018) and Dateline Diamonds (1965). He was married to Lee Middleton. He died on 4 April 1995 in London, England, UK.The Kenny Everett Television Show: S01e05 : Sherlock Holmes and the Mysterious Affair of the End of the World (1982)- Paul Guers was born on 19 December 1927 in Tours, France. He was an actor, known for La piovra (1984), A Tale of Two Cities (1958) and Kali Yug, la dea della vendetta (1963). He was married to Marie-Josèphe Guers, Françoise Brion and Rolande Kalis. He died on 28 November 2016 in Montsoreau, Maine-et-Loire, France.Sherlock Holmes (1982)
- Guy Henry is a British stage and screen actor. He is best-known for his roles in Rome (2005) and John Adams (2008). He trained at RADA (1979-1981). He has done most of his work at the Royal Shakespeare Company. He has appeared in Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows: Part 1 (2010) and Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows: Part 2 (2011). He does work on stage, TV, radio and film.
During a two year break from the BBC drama Holby City he learned to drive buses, sitting and passing the PCV test. He enjoys driving motor coaches when not acting.Young Sherlock: The Mystery of the Manor House (1982) - Actor
- Producer
- Director
Born in London, England and son of a British World War I hero, Lawford had spent most of his childhood in Paris, France and began his acting career at a very young age. His parents were not married when their son was born. As a result of the scandal, The Lawfords fled to America.
As a young child, the young Peter injured his arm by in his own words, "attempt to run through a glass door." Lawford's arm was badly injured however, the doctors could save it. The injury was so bad, it was slightly deformed and bothered him throughout life. But such was his luck, the injury kept him off the draft for World War II, which became the biggest boon of his acting career.
When Lawford was signed to MGM, his mother approached studio head, Louis B. Mayer, to pay her a salary as her son's personal assistant. However, Mayer declined. She then claimed that her son was "homosexual" and needed to be "supervised". This damaged the relationship between her and her son.
Lawford starred in his first major movie called A Yank at Eton (1942) , co-starring Mickey Rooney, Ian Hunter and Freddie Bartholomew. His performance was widely praised. During this time, Lawford started to get more leads when major MGM star Clark Gable was drafted into the war. Later, it was Good News (1947), co-starring June Allyson that became Lawford's greatest claim to fame.
Probably Lawford's most controversial affair, amongst many, was with African-American actress Dorothy Dandridge. It was rumored that both Lawford and Dandridge were planning to get married but canceled fearing it would jeopardize their careers.
Besides his successful career and being a socialite, Lawford was also part of the Rat Pack, with Dean Martin, Frank Sinatra, Joey Bishop and Sammy Davis Jr. .Fantasy Island: The Case Against Mr. Roarke/Save Sherlock Holmes (1982)- Actor
- Producer
- Director
A leading man of prodigious talents, Peter O'Toole was born and raised in Leeds, Yorkshire, England, the son of Constance Jane Eliot (Ferguson), a Scottish nurse, and Patrick Joseph O'Toole, an Irish metal plater, football player and racecourse bookmaker. Upon leaving school, he decided to become a journalist, beginning as a newspaper copy boy. Although he succeeded in becoming a reporter, he discovered the theater and made his stage debut at age 17. He served as a radioman in the Royal Navy for two years, then attended the Royal Academy of Dramatic Arts, where his classmates included Albert Finney, Alan Bates and Richard Harris.
O'Toole spent several years on-stage at the Bristol Old Vic, then made an inconspicuous film debut in the Disney classic Kidnapped (1960). In 1962, he was chosen by David Lean to play T.E. Lawrence in Lean's epic drama Lawrence of Arabia (1962). The role made O'Toole an international superstar and received him his first Academy Award nomination for Best Actor in a Leading Role. In 1963, he played Hamlet under Laurence Olivier's direction in the premiere production of the Royal National Theater. He continued successfully in artistically rich films as well as less artistic but commercially rewarding projects. He received Academy Award nominations (but no Oscar) for seven different films.
However, medical problems (originally thought to have been brought on by his drinking but which turned out to be stomach cancer) threatened to destroy his career and life in the 1970s. He survived by giving up alcohol and, after serious medical treatment, returned to films with triumphant performances in The Stunt Man (1980) and My Favorite Year (1982). His youthful beauty lost to time and drink, O'Toole has found meaningful roles increasingly difficult to come by, though he remained one of the greatest actors of his generation. He had two daughters, Pat and Kate O'Toole, from his marriage to actress Siân Phillips. He also had a son, Lorcan O'Toole, by model Karen Brown.
On December 14, 2013, Peter O'Toole died at age 81 in London, England.Sherlock Holmes and the Valley of Fear/Voice (1983)
Sherlock Holmes and the Sign of Four/Voice (1983)
Sherlock Holmes and the Baskerville Curse/Voice (1983)
Sherlock Holmes and a Study in Scarlet/Voice (1983)- Roger Ostime was born on 5 June 1928 in Hendon, Middlesex, England, UK. He was an actor, known for The Baker Street Boys (1983), Probation Officer (1959) and The Lost Boys (1978). He was married to Hilary Mason. He died on 18 December 2019 in Reigate, Surrey, England, UK.The Baker Street Boys (1983)
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A classical actor (and founding member in 1960 of the Royal Shakespeare Company), Richardson earned international fame as the villainous Francis Urquart in the BBC television trilogy, "House of Cards." Uttered in a cut-glass accent, the Machiavellian Prime Minister's sly "You might well think that ... I couldn't possibly comment" became a catchphrase when the series was broadcast in the 1990s. Richardson's contributions to his art were honored in 1989 when he was made a Commander of the Order of the British Empire (CBE.) Fittingly, his family had his ashes buried beneath the auditorium of the new Royal Shakespeare theatre in Stratford-upon-Avon.
Born the son of John and Margaret (Drummond) Richardson on April 7, 1934, he was educated at Tynecastle School in Edinburgh, and studied for the stage at the College of Dramatic Art in Glasgow, where he was awarded the James Bridie Gold Medal in 1957. He joined the Birmingham Repertory Theatre Company a year later where he played Hamlet as well as John Worthing in "The Importance of being Earnest." In 1960 he joined the Royal Shakespeare Company (then called the Shakespeare Memorial Theatre) and drew excellent notices for his work in "The Merchant of Venice," "Twelfth Night," "The Winter's Tale," "Much Ado About Nothing," "A Midsummer Night's Dream," "The Taming of the Shrew," "The Comedy of Errors" and "King Lear", among others. In 1964 Richardson played the role of the Herald before advancing to the title role of Jean-Paul Marat in the stunning, avant-garde RSC production of "Marat-Sade". In addition, he made his Broadway debut in said role at the very end of 1965, and recreated it to critical acclaim in Peter Brooks' film adaptation with Glenda Jackson as murderess Charlotte Corday. Richardson also went on to replay Oberon in a lukewarm film version of RSC's A Midsummer Night's Dream (1968) that nevertheless bore an elite company of Britain's finest pre-Dames -- Judi Dench, Helen Mirren and Diana Rigg. One of his lower film points during that time period, however, was appearing in the huge musical movie misfire Man of La Mancha (1972) in the role of the Padre opposite Peter O'Toole and Sophia Loren.
Richardson was never far from the Shakespearean stage after his induction into films with majestic portraits of Coriolanus, Pericles, Richard II, Richard III, Cassius ("Julius Caesar"), Malcolm ("Macbeth"), Angelo ("Measure for Measure"), Prospero ("The Tempest") and Mercutio ("Romeo and "Juliet") paving the way. Elsewhere on Broadway he received a Drama Desk Award and Tony nomination for his splendid Henry Higgins in a revival of "My Fair Lady" in 1976, and was part of the cast of the short-lived (12 performances) production of "Lolita" (1981), written by Edward Albee and starring Donald Sutherland as Humbert Humbert.
Customary of many talented Scots, Richardson would find his best on-camera roles in plush, intelligent TV mini-series. On the Shakespearean front he appeared in TV adaptations of As You Like It (1963), All's Well That Ends Well (1968) and Much Ado About Nothing (1978). After delivering highly capable performances as Field-Marshal Montgomery in both Churchill and the Generals (1979) and Ike: The War Years (1979), Sherlock Holmes in The Hound of the Baskervilles (1983), and Indian Prime Minister Nehru in Masterpiece Theatre: Lord Mountbatten - The Last Viceroy (1986), he capped his small-screen career in the role of the immoral politician Francis Urquhart in a trio of dramatic satires: House of Cards (1990), To Play the King (1993) and The Final Cut (1995). His impeccably finely-tuned villain became one his best remembered roles.
Filmwise, Richardson's stature did not grow despite polished work in Brazil (1985), Cry Freedom (1987), Rosencrantz & Guildenstern Are Dead (1990), M. Butterfly (1993), Dark City (1998), and the lightweight mainstream fare B*A*P*S (1997) and 102 Dalmatians (2000). He appeared less and less on stage in his later years. He took his final stage bows in 2006 with West End productions of "The Creeper" and "The Alchemist".
The urbane 72-year-old actor died unexpectedly in his sleep at his London abode on February 9, 2007, survived by his widow Maroussia Frank (his wife from 1961 and an RSC actress who played an asylum inmate alongside him in "Marat-Sade") and two sons, one of whom, Miles Richardson, has been a resident performer with the RSC.The Hound of the Baskervilles (1983)
The Sign of Four (1984)- Actor
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The refined and debonair English actor Jeremy Brett will forever be best remembered for his long-running and critically acclaimed portrayal of Sherlock Holmes for Britain's Granada Television. From a privileged background, Brett was educated at England's most prestigious independent school, Eton College. After training as an actor at the Central School of Speech and Drama in London, Brett made his professional stage debut in repertory in 1954. He became a noteworthy classical actor who was to make regular appearances on stage, including many with the National Theatre.
Brett was as cultured off screen as on. His interests included classical music, archery and horseback riding. His greatest popularity and acclaim would come with his portrayal of Sherlock Holmes on television from the 1980s through to the 1990s. Where so many have tried and failed to capture the essence of the character, either being derided or forgotten, Brett's widely praised take on it has been described by many as superlative and even definitive. Brett suffered from poor health towards the end of his life but he was still playing the role of Holmes shortly before his death in 1995 at the age of 61.The Adventures of Sherlock Holmes (1984-85)
The Return of Sherlock Holmes (1986-88)
The Sign of Four (1987)
The Hound of the Baskervilles (1988)
ITV Telethon: Telethon '92 (1992)
The Case-Book of Sherlock Holmes (1991-93)
The Memoirs of Sherlock Holmes (1994)- Actor
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Fat Chung is known for To Be Number One (1991), Millionaires' Express (1986) and The Return of Pom Pom (1984).Seung lung chut hoi (1984)- Peter Evans was born on 27 May 1950 in Englewood, New Jersey, USA. He was an actor, known for Arthur (1981), Remington Steele (1982) and Nine to Five (1982). He died on 20 May 1989 in Los Angeles, California, USA.Remington Steele: Elementary Steele (1984)
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Larry Moss is known for directing and working on The Syringa Tree, and Dos Corazones. His coaching of Michael Clarke Duncan on The Green Mile, his coaching of Helen Hunt on As Good As It Gets , his coaching of Leonardo DiCaprio on The Aviator and starring as the Acting Coach in Michael Blanco[Sherlock Hound]
Sherlock Hound (1984-85)- Speaks fluent Spanish and French. Lives in London. Attended Bristol University (BA in Hispanic Studies). Has appeared in numerous British plays and television programs. Most recognized by Americans as Sherlock Holmes in Young Sherlock Holmes (1985). The son of a member of Parliament. Lived with Lou Gish for six years until her death in February, 2006.Young Sherlock Holmes (1985)
Mr. Holmes/Matinee 'Sherlock' (2015) - Gaunt and saturnine British character actor of stage and screen, Guy Rolfe made his stage debut in 1936, the same year he had a small uncredited bit part in Knight Without Armor (1937). Rolfe had spent his early twenties as a professional race car driver and boxer before making the move into films. In 1952, he starred in Ivanhoe (1952) with Robert Taylor and Elizabeth Taylor. Rolfe's characters ranged from wealthy businessmen, to romantic leads, to sinister villains and heroes, starring in over thirty motion pictures. His important film roles include playing "Caiaphas" in King of Kings (1961), Taras Bulba (1962) and Mr. Sardonicus (1961). Although he was always recognized in such classic pictures, Rolfe became a familiar presence when he took over the role of toy maker "Andre Toulon" in the slasher film franchise "Puppetmaster". First appearing in the third installment, he made brief appearances in most "Puppet Master" movies since then. Guy Rolfe passed away of "natural causes" at the British Film Hospital in London, England at the age of 91.The Case of Marcel Duchamp (1984)
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Keith Scott was born on 28 October 1953 in Sydney, Australia. He is an actor, known for George of the Jungle (1997), The Adventures of Rocky & Bullwinkle (2000) and Daybreakers (2009).[Sherlock Bones]
Dot and the Koala (1985)- Actor
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While he was at school he had ambitions of being a pop star drummer. While he was good at his school lessons he failed his 'O' levels resulting in his father locking his drums away and telling him he would only get them back if he passed his exams when he re sat them. Fortunately for Russ his mother had a spare key to the lock. Inspired by the Beatles and swept along by the Merseybeat era he formed the group The Black Abbots in his home town of Chester where they soon became a big name. Being on a raised platform behind his drums he had a good view of the girls which is where he spotted the one that would become his wife. It was fortunate that after the show she went round to the stage door for autographs. Once established the group got a recording contract but when they broke up in 1980 Russ formed a new group 'The New Black Abbotts' then later launched himself as a solo comedian to great success being voted 3 years running as 'The Funniest Man on Television' by the readers of TV Times. To his surprise when he made a record in the early 80's singing 'Atmosphere' it shot into the Top 10 earning him a Silver Disc. He has 4 children, Gary, the eldest, who had his own band, Alterrnative Colours, Richard, Christopher and Erica.The Russ Abbot Show (1986-91)
Timeshift: Baker Street Babylon (2002)- Actor
- Soundtrack
Hugh Fraser was born on 23 October 1945 in England, UK. He is an actor, known for Poirot (1989), 101 Dalmatians (1996) and Jack the Ripper (1988). He has been married to Belinda Lang since 15 October 1988. They have one child.Q.E.D.: Murder on the Bluebell Line (1987)- Actor
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Michael Pennington was born on 7 June 1943 in Cambridge, Cambridgeshire, England, UK. He is an actor and director, known for Star Wars: Episode VI - Return of the Jedi (1983), The Iron Lady (2011) and Hamlet (1969). He was previously married to Katharine Barker.The Return of Sherlock Holmes (1987)- Actor
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Michael Caine was born as Maurice Joseph Micklewhite in London, to Ellen (née Burchell), a cook, and Maurice Micklewhite Sr., a fish-market porter. He had a younger brother, Stanley Caine, and an older maternal half-brother named David Burchell. He left school at age 15 and took a series of working-class jobs before joining the British army and serving in Korea during the Korean War, where he saw combat. Upon his return to England, he gravitated toward the theater and got a job as an assistant stage manager. He adopted the name of Caine on the advice of his agent, taking it from a marquee that advertised The Caine Mutiny (1954). In the years that followed, he worked in more than 100 television dramas, with repertory companies throughout England and eventually in the stage hit "The Long and the Short and the Tall".
Zulu (1964), the epic retelling of a historic 19th-century battle in South Africa between British soldiers and Zulu warriors, brought Caine to international attention. Instead of being typecast as a low-ranking Cockney soldier, he played a snobbish, aristocratic officer. Although "Zulu" was a major success, it was the role of Harry Palmer in The Ipcress File (1965) and the title role in Alfie (1966) that made Caine a star of the first magnitude. He epitomized the new breed of actor in mid-1960s England, the working-class bloke with glasses and a down-home accent. However, after initially starring in some excellent films, particularly in the 1960s, including Gambit (1966), Funeral in Berlin (1966), Play Dirty (1969), Battle of Britain (1969), Too Late the Hero (1970), The Last Valley (1971) and especially Get Carter (1971), he seemed to take on roles in below-average films, simply for the money he could by then command.
However, there were some gems amongst the dross. He gave a magnificent performance opposite Sean Connery in The Man Who Would Be King (1975) and turned in a solid one as a German colonel in The Eagle Has Landed (1976). Educating Rita (1983), Blame It on Rio (1984) and Hannah and Her Sisters (1986) (for which he won his first Oscar) were highlights of the 1980s, while more recently Little Voice (1998), The Cider House Rules (1999) (his second Oscar) and Last Orders (2001) have been widely acclaimed. Caine played Nigel Powers in the parody sequel Austin Powers in Goldmember (2002), and Alfred Pennyworth in Christopher Nolan's Dark Knight trilogy. He appeared in several other of Nolan's films including The Prestige (2006), Inception (2010) and Interstellar (2014). He also appeared as a supporting character in Alfonso Cuarón's Children of Men (2006) and Pixar's sequel Cars 2 (2011).
As of 2015, films in which Caine has starred have grossed over $7.4 billion worldwide. He is ranked the ninth highest grossing box office star. Caine is one of several actors nominated for an Academy Award for acting every decade from five consecutive decades (the other being Laurence Olivier and Meryl Streep). He was appointed Commander of the Order of the British Empire in the 1992 Birthday Honours, and was knighted by Queen Elizabeth II in the 2000 Birthday Honours in recognition for his contributions to the cinema.
Caine has been married twice. First to actress Patricia Haines from 1954 to 1958. They had a daughter, Dominique, in 1957. A bachelor for some dozen-plus years after the divorce, he was romantically linked to Edina Ronay (for three years), Nancy Sinatra, Natalie Wood, Candice Bergen, Bianca Jagger, Françoise Pascal and Jill St. John. In 1971 he met his second wife, fashion model Shakira Caine (née Baksh), and they married in 1973, six months before their daughter Natasha was born. The couple has three grandchildren, and in 2023, they celebrated their 50th wedding anniversary.Without a Clue (1988)- Actor
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Brian Bedford was born on 16 February 1935 in Morley, Yorkshire, England, UK. He was an actor and director, known for Nixon (1995), Robin Hood (1973) and Grand Prix (1966). He was married to Tim MacDonald. He died on 13 January 2016 in Santa Barbara, California, USA.Alfred Hitchcock Presents: My Dear Watson (1989)- Actor
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Rodney Dangerfield was born Jacob Cohen on November 22, 1921 in Deer Park, Suffolk County, Long Island, New York. He was the son of Dorothy "Dotty" (Teitelbaum) and Phillip Cohen, who performed in vaudeville under the name Phil Roy. His father was born in New York, to Russian Jewish parents, and his mother was a Hungarian Jewish immigrant. Rodney began writing jokes at the age of fifteen, and started performing before he was 20. He took his act to the road for ten years, his stage name was "Jack Roy". While working as a struggling comedian, Rodney Dangerfield worked as a singing waiter. His first run at comedy was to no avail.
Rodney Dangerfield married Joyce Indig, in 1949 and had two children: Brian and Melanie. During the 1950s, Rodney was an aluminum siding salesman, living in New Jersey. The comedian made another attempt at stand-up comedy, this time as Rodney Dangerfield. In 1961, Rodney divorced from his wife.
When he appeared on "The Ed Sullivan Show" (The Ed Sullivan Show (1948)), Rodney Dangerfield made Ed Sullivan laugh. Few people ever provoked any kind of reaction out of the legendary Ed Sullivan. Dangerfield had the image of a lovable disgruntled every-man type that became a hit all across nightclubs in the 1960s. Dangerfield also made many appearances on The Tonight Show Starring Johnny Carson (1962) and The Dean Martin Show (1965) in the 1970s.
Rodney Dangerfield snatched a minor supporting part in the movie, The Projectionist (1970), in 1971. By the mid 1970s, he had cemented his image as a comedian constantly tugging at his red tie, always proclaiming he gets no respect. His big break came with many appearances on Saturday Night Live (1975), bringing himself to a much wider audience and proving hysterical on many occasions. In 1980, Dangerfield became a cornerstone of American comedy with the classic Caddyshack (1980).
Here, he played "Al Czervik", a rich golfer who was a basically nice guy who was extremely outspoken and very obnoxious. His character was often unhappy with the rich snobbery he was around, and he takes on the rich people that are so snobby to him.
The average guy that his character portrayed was an instant hit, and a formula that Dangerfield often stuck with. Also, in 1980, Rodney came out with a popular comedy album, "Rappin Rodney".
The album earned Dangerfield a Grammy for best comedy album. The next movie on Rodney's agenda was Easy Money (1983), a comedy that showed him as an insulting working class person who suddenly becomes a millionaire. The movie was also a big hit. Dangerfield became very sparse in his roles on TV and film about this time. The year 1986 saw the comedy, Back to School (1986), his biggest film to date. The comedy was one of the first to gross over 100 million. In 1994, Dangerfield starred in his first dramatic role in the successful Oliver Stone film, Natural Born Killers (1994).
He played an abusive father who drove one of the killers crazy. His part was critically-acclaimed. In 1995, Dangerfield entered the world of cyberspace, becoming the first entertainer to have a website on the world-wide web. In 1997, he starred in Meet Wally Sparks (1997), a political and talk show satire which was poorly received. In 2000, Dangerfield starred as "the Devil" in Little Nicky (2000). The movie was potentially a huge hit, but was a failure by most accounts. Dangerfield took a very small part, but was top-billed in the direct-to-video The Godson (1998), and starred in the direct-to-video link=tt0216930]. But it has not been all smooth sailing for this comedian. In 1997, he admitted to a lifelong bout with depression and, on his 80th birthday, had a mild heart attack. He has major fans from all kinds of people from all different backgrounds. Dangerfield had made a record 70 appearances on The Tonight Show Starring Johnny Carson (1962), and had discovered many struggling comedians, including Jerry Seinfeld, Jim Carrey, Roseanne Barr, Robert Townsend, Sam Kinison and Tim Allen.
The comedian owned a legendary nightclub in Manhattan called "Dangerfield's". In the 1990s, he made highly-publicized appearances on The Simpsons (1989), In Living Color (1990), Dr. Katz, Professional Therapist (1995), Home Improvement (1991), Suddenly Susan (1996), among others.
In 1993, he married Joan Dangerfield (aka Joan Child), a woman thirty years younger than him, and a Mormon.
He died on October 5, 2004, after falling into a coma following heart surgery.Rodney Dangerfield: Opening Night at Rodney's Place (1989)- Resonantly-voiced English-born thespian John Patrick Horgan was best known for his affinity with the works of Arthur Conan Doyle, or, more specifically, Sherlock Holmes. He played the great detective several times on stage, notably in 1975 and 1990, as well as providing the character's voice on two audio recordings for the blind. Horgan was of Irish ancestry, the son of doctors. Rather than follow in his parents' footsteps, he dropped out of medical school and took up acting. He began working in television in 1954, his first recurring role being a romantic figure in The Gentle Falcon (1954), a BBC series based on a historical novel by Hilda Lewis. In 1964, Horgan married the American actress Irish McCalla. For a while, the couple lived in an apartment in Greenwich Village, Manhattan. By 1966, they had separated and Horgan spent most of his time on the West Coast cutting his teeth on prime time TV shows like Pistols 'n' Petticoats (1966), Mission: Impossible (1966), The High Chaparral (1967), Green Acres (1965), Star Trek (1966) and Bewitched (1964) (as an amorous English castle ghost). He also had a prolific run as Dr. John Morrison in NBC's daytime soap The Doctors (1963). For the big screen, Horgan narrated Woody Allen's mockumentary Zelig (1983). His final screen role was as a guest in Allen's The Curse of the Jade Scorpion (2001).Lenox Gas Furnace Commercial (1990)
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British actor Edward Woodward made a highly successful transition into Hollywood TV stardom in the mid 1980s thanks to a popular dramatic series. Possessing a magnetic, yet coldly handsome demeanor in the same mold as Christopher Plummer, he was born Edward Albert Arthur Woodward on June 1, 1930, in London and received his early education at various schools before becoming a student at Commercial College.
Trained in acting at the Royal Academy of Dramatic Art (RADA), Woodward made his stage debut in a 1946 production of "A Kiss for Cinderella," and gained valuable experience in repertory companies throughout England and Scotland. He took his first London curtain call portraying "Ralph Stokes" in 1954 with "Where There's a Will," and subsequently made his movie debut recreating his stage part in the film version of Where There's a Will (1955). The actor continued grandly on stage in such Shakespearean productions as "Hamlet" (Laertes)," "Romeo and Juliet" (Mercutio), "Pericles" (Thaliard), "Much Ado About Nothing" (Claudio), and "Measure for Measure" (Lucio), but scored a major success portraying Percy in "Rattle of a Simple Man" in 1961, making his Broadway debut in the play two years later. Woodward would make fine use of his mastery of the spoken word by putting out a host of audio books.
A gifted singer who produced over a dozen musical recordings, Edward displayed his excellent singing pipes on Broadway as Charles Condomine in "High Spirits" (1963), the musical adaptation of Noël Coward's "Blithe Spirit," that also starred Tammy Grimes, Louise Troy and the legendary Beatrice Lillie. He also went on to win the Variety Award ("Best Performance in a Musical") for his lead role of Sydney Carton in a musical version of the Dickens classic "Two Cities." Other non-musical stage work would include the comedy "The Best Laid Plans," an acclaimed title role in "Cyrano de Bergerac," as well as noble appearances in "The White Devil," "Babes in the Wood" (as Robin Hood), "The Wolf," "The Male of the Species," "The Beggar's Opera" (as Macheath), "Private Lives" and "The Dead Secret."
Although in movies from 1955, it was TV that earned him his initial star in England. Feature film roles in such acclaimed period costumers as Becket (1964) and Young Winston (1972) were overshadowed by his more successful work on the smaller screen, especially his weary spy in the popular series Callan (1967). A brilliant performance in the film The Wicker Man (1973) and in a few others led to international stardom as court-martialed Lt. Harry Morant in the classic Aussie-made historical drama Breaker Morant (1980) directed by Bruce Beresford.
Woodward was finally granted some attention in the States at age 55, earning his own popular series, the noirish espionage series The Equalizer (1985). Served up best in crime, historical and political intrigue, he has been completely at home playing no-nonsense authoritarians and brooding loner types. Following the series' cancellation, he returned to British TV with the mystery In Suspicious Circumstances (1991), but was never far away from the US shores. Maturing roles in advancing years included a wide range of characters -- everything from Merlin to the Ghost of Christmas Present in mini-movie formats.
Woodward continued to work here and abroad up until his death. Later feature films included a top-billed role in the horror film The Appointment (1982); a top brass role in the action thriller The Final Option (1982); a featured role in the horse-racing biopic Champions (1984); as King Saul in the biblical story King David (1985); another Bruce Beresford directed film with Mister Johnson (1990); the ghost of a murderer in the black comedy Deadly Advice (1994); the 18th century patriarch of The House of Angelo (1997), which he produced and also featured his three children; a lord in the action adventure The Abduction Club (2002); a featured part in the comedy action Hot Fuzz (2007) and, his last, a reverend in the drama A Congregation of Ghosts (2009). TV appearances included recurring/regular roles in the British series: Nice Work (1980), Five Days (2007) and EastEnders (1985); plus the American series Over My Dead Body (1990) and the Canadian series La Femme Nikita (1997).
Woodward married actress Venetia Barrett (nee Collett) in 1952 and had three children, all of whom went into acting: Tim Woodward, Peter Woodward and Sarah Woodward. After his tabloid divorce (after over 30 years) from his first wife, he quickly married lovely actress Michele Dotrice in 1987, the sister of former 1960s' Disney child star Karen Dotrice of Mary Poppins (1964) fame. He and Michele produced one child, Emily. The subject of This Is Your Life (1955) on two separate occasions, the actor survived two major heart attacks before dying of pneumonia at age 79 on November 16, 2009, in Cornwall, England.Hands of a Murderer (1990)- Rupert Frazer was born on 12 March 1947. He is an actor, known for The Bank Job (2008), Empire of the Sun (1987) and John Carter (2012).Father Dowling Mysteries: The Consulting Detective Mystery (1991)
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With features chiseled in stone, and renowned for playing a long list of historical figures, particularly in Biblical epics, the tall, well-built and ruggedly handsome Charlton Heston was one of Hollywood's top leading men of his prime and remained active in front of movie cameras for over sixty years. As a Hollywood star, he appeared in 100 films over the course of 60 years. He played Moses in the epic film, The Ten Commandments (1956) , for which he received his first Golden Globe Award nomination. He also starred in Touch of Evil (1958) with Orson Welles; Ben-Hur, for which he won the Academy Award for Best Actor (1959); El Cid (1961); and Planet of the Apes (1968). He also starred in the films The Greatest Show on Earth (1952); Secret of the Incas (1954); The Big Country (1958); and The Agony and the Ecstasy (1965). A supporter of Democratic politicians and civil rights in the 1960s, Heston later became a Republican, founding a conservative political action committee and supporting Ronald Reagan. Heston's most famous role in politics came as the five-term president of the National Rifle Association, from 1998 to 2003.
Heston was born John Charles Carter on October 4, 1923, in No Man's Land, Illinois, to Lila (Charlton) and Russell Whitford Carter, who operated a sawmill. He had English and Scottish ancestry, with recent Canadianforebears.
Heston made his feature film debut as the lead character in a 16mm production of Peer Gynt (1941), based on the Henrik Ibsen play. In 1944, Heston enlisted in the United States Army Air Forces. He served for two years as a radio operator and aerial gunner aboard a B-25 Mitchell stationed in the Alaskan Aleutian Islands with the 77th Bombardment Squadron of the Eleventh Air Force. He reached the rank of Staff Sergeant. Heston married Northwestern University student Lydia Marie Clarke, who was six months his senior. That same year he joined the military.
Heston played 'Marc Antony' in Julius Caesar (1950), and firmly stamped himself as genuine leading man material with his performance as circus manager 'Brad Braden' in the Cecil B. DeMille spectacular The Greatest Show on Earth (1952), also starring James Stewart and Cornel Wilde. The now very popular actor remained perpetually busy during the 1950s, both on TV and on the silver screen with audience pleasing performances in the steamy thriller The Naked Jungle (1954), as a treasure hunter in Secret of the Incas (1954) and another barn storming performance for Cecil B. DeMille as "Moses" in the blockbuster The Ten Commandments (1956).
Heston delivered further dynamic performances in the oily film noir thriller Touch of Evil (1958), and then alongside Gregory Peck in the western The Big Country (1958) before scoring the role for which he is arguably best known, that of the wronged Jewish prince who seeks his freedom and revenge in the William Wyler directed Ben-Hur (1959). This mammoth Biblical epic running in excess of three and a half hours became the standard by which other large scale productions would be judged, and its superb cast also including Stephen Boyd as the villainous "Massala", English actor Jack Hawkins as the Roman officer "Quintus Arrius", and Australian actor Frank Thring as "Pontius Pilate", all contributed wonderful performances. Never one to rest on his laurels, steely Heston remained the preferred choice of directors to lead the cast in major historical productions and during the 1960s he starred as Spanish legend "Rodrigo Diaz de Vivar" in El Cid (1961), as a US soldier battling hostile Chinese boxers during 55 Days at Peking (1963),played the ill-fated "John the Baptist" in The Greatest Story Ever Told (1965), the masterful painter "Michelangelo" battling Pope Julius II in The Agony and the Ecstasy (1965), and an English general in Khartoum (1966). In 1968, Heston filmed the unusual western Will Penny (1967) about an aging and lonely cowboy befriending a lost woman and her son, which Heston has often referred to as his favorite piece of work on screen. Interestingly, Heston was on the verge of acquiring an entirely new league of fans due to his appearance in four very topical science fiction films (all based on popular novels) painting bleak futures for mankind.
In 1968, Heston starred as time-traveling astronaut "George Taylor", in the terrific Planet of the Apes (1968) with its now legendary conclusion as Heston realizes the true horror of his destination. He returned to reprise the role, albeit primarily as a cameo, alongside fellow astronaut James Franciscus in the slightly inferior sequel Beneath the Planet of the Apes (1970). Next up, Heston again found himself facing the apocalypse in The Omega Man (1971) as the survivor of a germ plague that has wiped out humanity leaving only bands of psychotic lunatics roaming the cities who seek to kill the uninfected Heston. And fourthly, taking its inspiration from the Harry Harrison novel "Make Room!, Make Room!", Heston starred alongside screen legend Edward G. Robinson and Chuck Connors in Soylent Green (1973). During the remainder of the 1970s, Heston appeared in two very popular "disaster movies" contributing lead roles in the far-fetched Airport 1975 (1974), plus in the star-laden Earthquake (1974), filmed in "Sensoround" (low-bass speakers were installed in selected theaters to simulate the earthquake rumblings on screen to movie audiences). He played an evil Cardinal in the lively The Four Musketeers: Milady's Revenge (1974), a mythical US naval officer in the recreation of Midway (1976), also filmed in "Sensoround", an LA cop trying to stop a sniper in Two-Minute Warning (1976) and another US naval officer in the submarine thriller Gray Lady Down (1978). Heston appeared in numerous episodes of the high-rating TV series Dynasty (1981) and The Colbys (1985), before moving onto a mixed bag of projects including TV adaptations of Treasure Island (1990) and A Man for All Seasons (1988), hosting two episodes of the comedy show, Saturday Night Live (1975), starring as the "Good Actor" bringing love struck Mike Myers to tears in Wayne's World 2 (1993), and as the eye patch-wearing boss of intelligence agent Arnold Schwarzenegger in True Lies (1994). He also narrated numerous TV specials and lent his vocal talents to the animated movie Hercules (1997), the family comedy Cats & Dogs (2001) and an animated version of Ben Hur (2003). Heston made an uncredited appearance in the inferior remake of Planet of the Apes (2001), and his last film appearance to date was in the Holocaust-themed drama of My Father (2003).
Heston narrated for highly classified military and Department of Energy instructional films, particularly relating to nuclear weapons, and "for six years Heston [held] the nation's highest security clearance" or Q clearance. The Q clearance is similar to a DoD or Defense Intelligence Agency (DIA) clearance of Top Secret.
Heston was married to Lydia Marie Clark Heston since March 1944, and they have two children. His highly entertaining autobiography was released in 1995, titled appropriately enough "Into The Arena". Although often criticized for his strong conservative beliefs and involvement with the NRA, Heston was a strong advocate for civil right many years before it became fashionable, and was a recipient of the Jean Hersholt Humanitarian Award, plus the Kennedy Center Lifetime Achievement Award. In 2002, he was diagnosed with Alzheimer's disease, and did appear in a film or TV production after 2003. He died in April 2008, a memorable figure in the history of US cinema.The Crucifer of Blood (1991)- Juan Manuel Montesinos was born on 10 January 1950 in Madrid, Spain. He was an actor, known for Sherlock Holmes en Caracas (1991), La boda (1982) and Ka Ina (1995). He was married to María Elena Dávila. He died on 14 July 2009 in Barcelona, Spain.Sherlock Holmes en Caracas (1991)
- Actor
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Reece was born and raised in Normanton, West Yorkshire. He trained at the prestigious Guildhall School of Music and Drama in London. This led to a long and successful acting career in television, theatre, film and radio drama.
He has appeared in some of the most celebrated TV shows and films over the last thirty-five years. He starred alongside the late John Thaw in the hugely popular television series Home to Roost, won the Special Jury Prize (International Critics Award) at the Geneva Film Festival for his portrayal of John Brandon in the feature film I.D., played Guildenstern (to Timothy Spall's Rosencrantz) in Kenneth Branagh's highly acclaimed movie of Hamlet, and played Joe McIntyre in Coronation Street from 2008 to 2010. Reece has starred in many high profile TV dramas including Threads, Jim Henson's Storyteller (both BAFTA award winning), Take Me Home, Spooks, Life On Mars, Conviction, Silent Witness and many, many others.
His various stage appearances nationwide include plays at The National Theatre, The Royal Shakespeare Company, The Royal Exchange Manchester and, of course, The West Yorkshire (Leeds) Playhouse, where he had the honour of playing the leading role of Jack Rover in Wild Oats in the theatre's inaugural production some twenty-nine years ago. Subsequently he has appeared there in Playboy of the Western World, The Revengers Tragedy, Visiting Mr Green (a two-hander with Warren Mitchell). More recently, Reece played Walter Harrison in James Graham's acclaimed This House at The National Theatre and George Jones in David Hare's The Absence of War (for Headlong), both directed by James Herring. He appeared in Alan Bennett's autobiographical piece, Untold Stories, in which he played the great man himself and for which he received a Yorkshire Award for services to Arts and Entertainment. He followed this up by playing Richard III, and Halvard Solness in an updated version of Ibsen's (the fall of) The Master Builder by Zinnie Harris and set in the heart of West Yorkshire. Reece was made the theatre's first Associate Artist in 2015. In more recent years he has added a new string to his bow and has been busy on the other side of the camera directing six single dramas in the BBC Television series 'Moving On' for Jimmy McGovern... one of which (Eighteen, starring Rosie Cavaliero) won the Royal Television Society Award for Best Daytime Program. Reece recently directed two episodes of the brand new series Pitching In for BBC1.Science Fiction: Sherlock Holmes and the Case of the Missing Link (1992)- Actor
- Director
- Writer
Viktor Preiss was born on 13 March 1947 in Prague, Czechoslovakia [now Czech Republic]. He is an actor and director, known for Romaneto (1981), Veronika (1986) and Dvacátý devátý (1974).Splhající profesor (1992)- Actor
- Soundtrack
Radoslav Brzobohatý was born on 13 September 1932 in Vrútky, Czechoslovakia [now Slovakia]. He was an actor, known for Náhrdelník (1992), Snezenky a machri (1983) and The Assassination (1964). He was married to Hana Gregorová, Jirina Bohdalová and Jarmila Kolarova. He died on 12 September 2012 in Prague, Czech Republic.Arabela se vrací: Vestba se plní (1993)
Arabela se vrací: Pomoc, za kopcem je obr (1993)- Actor
- Producer
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Neil Patrick Harris was born in Albuquerque, New Mexico, on June 15, 1973. His parents, Sheila Gail (Scott) and Ronald Gene Harris, were lawyers and ran a restaurant. He grew up in Ruidoso, New Mexico, a small town 120 miles south of Albuquerque, where he first took up acting in the fourth grade. While tagging along with his older brother of 3 years, Harris won the part of Toto in a school production of The Wizard of Oz (1939).
His parents moved the family to Albuquerque in 1988, the same year that Harris made his film debut in two movies: Purple People Eater (1988) and Clara's Heart (1988), which starred Whoopi Goldberg. A year later, when Neil was 16, he landed the lead role in Steven Bochco's television series about a teen prodigy doctor at a local hospital, Doogie Howser, M.D. (1989), which launched Harris into teen-heartthrob status. The series lasted1989-1993 and earned him a People's Choice Award for Favorite Male Performer in a New Series (1990) and a Golden Globe Nomination (1990). Harris attended the same high school as Freddie Prinze Jr., La Cueva High School in Albuquerque. Neil acted on stage in a few plays while there, one of which was his senior play, Fiddler on the Roof (1971), in which he portrayed Lazar Wolf the butcher (1991).
When "Doogie Howser, M.D." stopped production in 1993, Harris took up stage acting, which he had always wanted to do. After a string of made-for-television movies, Harris acted in his first big screen roles in nine years, Starship Troopers (1997) with Casper Van Dien and then The Proposition (1998). In July 1997, Harris accepted the role of Mark Cohen for the Los Angeles production of the beloved musical, Rent (2005). His performance in "Rent" garnered him a Drama-League Award in 1997. He continued in the musical, to rave reviews, until January 1998. He later reprised the role for six nights in his hometown of Albuquerque, New Mexico, in December 1998.
In 1999, Harris returned to television in the short-lived sitcom Stark Raving Mad (1999), with Tony Shalhoub. He was also in the big-screen projects The Next Best Thing (2000) and Undercover Brother (2002), and he can be heard as the voice of Peter Parker/Spider-Man in the newest animated Spider-Man (2003) series. Harris has continued his stage work, making his Broadway debut in 2001 in "Proof." He has also appeared on stage in "Romeo and Juliet," "Cabaret," Sweeney Todd: The Demon Barber of Fleet Street in Concert (2001), and, most recently, "Assassins." In 2005, Harris returned to the small screen in a guest-starring role on Numb3rs (2005) and a starring role in the sitcom How I Met Your Mother (2005). Neil played the title role in the web-exclusive musical comedy Dr. Horrible's Sing-Along Blog (2008), widely downloaded via iTunes to become the #1 TV series for five straight weeks, despite not actually being on television.Doogie Howser M.D.: The Adventures of Sherlock Howser (1993)- Actor
- Soundtrack
Higgins was born May 9, 1947 in East Northamptonshire, England to parents who had emigrated from Ireland just before World War II in search of economic opportunity. His parents lived in London during the Blitz. Eventually, they left London for Northamptonshire so that his father could obtain work as a builder for American army bases. Young Anthony completed his studies at a state school and then intended to be a journalist. He worked as a butcher in Bedford and then as a "navvy," a builder's helper, in the small town of Grendon, near Northampton. At the age of 16, he obtained a job on a local paper but, by law, he had to be over 17 before he could work so he spent the time learning shorthand and typing. Then, a friend took him to a weekend drama course run by the distinguished Shavian actress, Margaretta Scott. She encouraged him to consider a career as an actor. He said, "It felt right so I decided to pursue it." Higgins won a scholarship to the Birmingham School of Speech and Dramatic Arts in 1964 and studied there for three years. He made his first professional appearance at the Birmingham Repertory Theater Company in Shakespeare's "A Winter's Tale" as a walk-on while still at school. He then joined the company full time and was assigned principal roles nearly at once. His portrayal of Romeo, opposite Anna Calder-Marshall as Juliet, received rave reviews throughout England. He also played Cassio in "Othello," and Louis Debedat in "The Doctor's Dilemma." He then worked onstage in classics and contemporary plays in Chichester and London. However, it was a theatrical portrayal of Edmund Tyrone in Eugene O'Neill's, "A Long Day's Journey Into Night" in Birmingham that led to Higgins' cinema debut for director John Huston under the name, Anthony Corlan, (his mother's maiden name), in "A Walk with Love and Death" (1969). The film takes place during Europe's 100 Years War and was shot in Vienna and the Vienna Woods. The film is notable for the debut of Huston's daughter, Angelica. Corlan plays Robert, a nobleman, wearing authentic looking armor. It was Huston who taught him how to ride horses. Higgins rides with style in many subsequent films. Later, he would own a racehorse in Ireland.
After appearing in "A Walk with Love and Death," the actor was in several television plays for the BBC, including an original drama, "The Blood of the Lamb," for "The Wednesday Play" and "Mary, Queen of Scots" for "Play of the Month." He then made two films for television, one an episode of "Journey to the Unknown" with Janice Rule, and the other, a segment of "Strange Report," with Anthony Quayle. His next feature film role was in "Something for Everyone," also known as "The Cook," (1970), after auditioning for director Hal Prince and producer John Flaxman in London. This was stage director Prince's first flirtation with film, with a script by Hugh Wheeler, author of "Sweeney Todd." Higgins plays a quiet, sheltered young German royal, Helmuth, with Angela Lansbury as his mother. Helmut is forced into an arranged marriage with Annaliese, played by German actress, Heidelinde Weis. He discovers the darker motives that lurk beneath Michael York's gleaming blonde appearance against brilliant cinematography in the shadow of King Ludwig's Castle, in Neuschwanstein, Germany. In 1972, Higgins acted in "Vampire Circus" as a circus performer who changes into a panther-vampire. The film has become a cult classic. It was banned in Britain (because of its bestiality). The actor has said that it is the last of the great vampire films produced under the Hammer banner. There is a badly edited version for sale in the United States; an uncut edition has been seen in Europe that is much clearer. "Flavia, the Moslem Nun," (1974), with Brazilian born Florinda Bolkan, gave Higgins an opportunity to work in Italy. The DVD is a great piece of cinema history rescued by high technology and enhanced by a recent interview with Ms. Bolkan, who became an international screen legend in her own time. The story is derived from actual events in the 1400s that culminated in "The Martyrdom of the 800" in Otranto. The exotic soundtrack is by Academy Award winning composer, Nicola Piovani ("Life is Beautiful"). If one can get past the explicit physical mutilation of animals and humans and the insults to the Catholic Church, the script can be seen as supportive of feminism. Director Gianfranco Mingozzi's vision is representative of the wild cinema of the sexual revolution of the 70s in which auteurs were bursting to break free from the establishment. "Flavia" has haunting performances by Bolkan, Maria Casares, (the princess in Cocteau's "Orpheus") and Higgins. He is dazzling as the Moslem commander with no name who initiates Flavia as a sexual being, encourages her to carry out a bloody revenge and then disillusions her. That Higgins does not speak much is of no consequence. He communicates some of his best acting with movements and facial expressions, particularly, with his eyes. He can say volumes with one mesmerizing gaze.
The actor flourished on stage, television and screen throughout the 70s. Notably, he starred as a Roman soldier looking for his vanished father in Caledonia, in BBC Scotland's miniseries, "Eagle of the Ninth" with Patrick Malahide in 1977. However, Higgins has said that he is most proud to have been a member of the Royal Shakespeare Company's original London cast of "Piaf," a biography of the French singer, Edith Piaf, written by Pam Gems, which starred Jane Lapotaire in 1979. The play was resurrected to rave reviews in London in 1994 but without any of the original players. Higgins won Best Actor of 1979 from Time Out magazine for his work with The Royal Shakespeare Company that year. He acted in mainly new work with the RSC but he also played Lucentio in "The Taming of the Shrew" opposite Zoe Wanamaker as his sweet Bianca. Older London stage audiences may discern that among his many stage to television appearances in the 80s was the role of Camille in "Danton's Death." The play by George Buechner ran at the National Theater in London for a year and was then produced for television by the BBC. Zoe Wanamaker played opposite him once more. As the actor matured in his thirties, his persona grew more interesting with more unusual works. Higgins' face is often recognized for his having played the artist in "The Draughtsman's Contract," (1982), opposite the brilliant Shakespearean actress, Janet Suzman. The film is suggestive of classical restoration drama with a mysterious plot, elegant landscape shots of England's County Kent and a Purcell-like soundtrack by Michael Nyman. Director Peter Greenaway has said that he cast Higgins in the lead because he best expressed a combination of arrogance and innocence. Higgins gives a subtle depiction of the outcast, the son of a tenant farmer, who turns out to be too trusting and is tragically deceived. After Draughtsman's initial release, many viewers wondered what the lead actor would do next but Higgins does not generally pursue publicity. Although he appeared at the Edinburgh Festival with the cast, he did not do many interviews. "Draughtsman" experienced resurgence in 1994 and the actor's face was plastered on larger than life posters across the high walls of London's underground tube stops. His face has often been well utilized to represent a variety of ethnic origins. It is an oval face with a long thin nose and high, almost oriental cheekbones. It is usually framed by dark, wavy hair, sometimes ending at his collar. His balanced brows can look calm but lying dormant behind his deeply inset, hazel eyes is a prospective fire. Behind the face lies great inventiveness that has not always been allowed to surface but when it does, the effect can be striking. Higgins seems to have unlocked a storeroom of intensity by taking on the role of Stephan, a hard-luck Polish immigrant to 1920s Paris in the Merchant-Ivory film, "Quartet" (1981). The film, based on the novel by Jean Rhys, is sharply directed by James Ivory and has a heart-felt script by Ruth Prawer Jhabvala ("Le Divorce"). Isabelle Adjani garnered a Cannes Film Festival award for Best Actress for her gut-wrenching performance as Stephan's defenseless wife. Stephan is an impetuous man, who takes the dishonest road to acquiring wealth, with a small amount of shiftiness and a large amount of charm. Higgins infuses the role with detailed mannerisms such as holding his cigarette by cupping the end with his fingers, as many Slavic men do.
Higgins' height (6' 2"), dark looks and air of moral strength have frequently rendered him romantic roles. He sometimes appears to be aloof but a warmth sneaks out. The tough guy who softens for a vulnerable female might be what he is all about. Thus, it seems only natural that an actor whom he greatly admires is Robert Mitchum. Indeed, in another era, Higgins himself might have fit nicely into film noir. Higgins stars in a dark mystery film, "Sweet Killing," (1993), which was filmed in Montreal and also features F. Murray Abraham. Female admiration of Higgins became universal with his winsome portrayal of Abdullah, in "Lace," (1984-5), a cleverly written television miniseries by Elliot Baker, based on the popular English novel by Shirley Conran. Angela Lansbury, Brooke Adams and Arielle Dombasle are outstanding. Most critics condemned Phoebe Cates for her unconvincing acting but unanimously praised Higgins' persuasive performance as an Arabian prince, who is the lynch pin of the plot. The film also captures glamorous scenery of the French Alps, Chamonix and other jet-set locales; it has wonderful women's fashions, particularly hats, by Barbara Lane; it is the ultimate "chick flick." Higgins, astonished to hear that it is frequently repeated on cable in the U.S., has reacted, "It was great fun to do, actually. It has no pretense to be Strindberg. It is glamorous trash. Still, we had great character actors in it like Anthony Quayle, an old friend, who is now dead; and the director, Billy Hale, and I hit it off in a big way." Far from charming in "Reilly, Ace of Spies," (1983), the actor plays a cold Communist assassin in the British miniseries with Sam Neill in the title role; Higgins' innocence seen in previous roles is totally obscured here. In 1986, he acted with Jeanne Moreau in Agatha Christie's mystery, "The Last Séance," for Granada TV. "Max, Mon Amour," a feature film for the daring director Nagisa Oshima ("Realm of the Senses") followed in 1986. It has an outrageous plot about a bored wife (Charlotte Rampling) with a chimpanzee as her lover. Higgins plays her British diplomat husband who invites the ape to live with them in Paris.
Higgins continued to work in France to play Napoleon's elder brother in "Napoleon and Josephine," with Armand Assante and Jacqueline Bisset in the title roles in 1987. It gave Higgins the opportunity to work again with Jane Lapotaire as mother Bonaparte. After Napoleon cuts up Europe for his family, Joseph satirically delivers a memorable aside, "Louis gets Holland and all I get is disease-ridden Naples." Lavishly photographed in Europe and North Africa, the television miniseries has subtle humor; it airs occasionally on cable in the U.S. A tendency of Higgins' style has been to hold something back, compelling the viewer to wonder what else he has stored up, adding mystery to his character. In "Darlings of the Gods," an Australian television film, (1991), he may have held back a bit much in the lead as Laurence Olivier, opposite Mel Martin as Vivien Leigh, to the disappointment of some critics. Still, the film aired around the world, received good ratings and repeated several times. In spin offs of the Sherlock Holmes legend, Higgins is the only actor besides Orson Welles to have played both Moriarty ("Young Sherlock Holmes" 1985) and Holmes ("Sherlock Holmes Returns" 1993). Both works display his skills in fencing and oration of long monologues; both versions proved popular in several countries, among them Germany. Higgins is fluent in German. German artist and photographer, Heide Lausen, whom he met while working on "Something for Everyone" in Germany, widows him. He has one daughter, who was born in 1974 and raised in Bavaria. He is often recognized for having played a stereotypical Nazi villain in Stephen Spielberg's, "Raiders of the Lost Ark," (1981). However, of the television film, "One Against the Wind," also known as "Mary Lindell," (1991), starring Judy Davis, Higgins has said that he enjoyed playing a non-typical German SS officer, who had been classically educated in England, because it was not a hackneyed image. "The Bridge," (1992), based on the Whitbread award winning novel by Maggie Hemingway, is an engaging film that takes place in the 19th century with actress Saskia Reeves struggling against sociological constraints. Here, his power simmers rather than explodes, as he plays a husband, who makes a shrewd move to eliminate his wife's lover. In a scene with his daughters at the breakfast table, one can sense that his character might do anything to prevent his family from breaking apart.
A family role that Higgins took on enthusiastically was that of Johann Strauss, Sr. in "The Strauss Dynasty," (1991). The award winning television miniseries, which was filmed in Austria and Hungary over eight months, contains a cast of hundreds. The scope covers the entire Strauss family and the music and politics of their time. The twelve-hour program aired successfully in Europe and Australia in the 90s. The actor shows great range in this role, growing from young adored "Waltz King" conductor of Vienna to world weary, exhausted composer. The series shines with many international stars, enlightening history and music by the Strausses. Higgins grew up in a large musical and creative family of five brothers and one sister in Northamptonshire. Before Higgins was born, his father sang with a band in Cork in the 1930s. His mother was the local church organist and would sometimes accompany him on piano. Later, his father went to New York and studied opera but he returned to Ireland after six years. Anthony plays flugelhorn; he had an instrument especially crafted for him in Germany. He has said that his mother taught him to read even before he went to school. He is a voracious reader; he writes, having used an old manual typewriter prior to the computer era. He also has a penchant for classical music, jazz and fine art; when in New York, he likes to visit the Frick Museum and the Pierpont Morgan Library. He has always had a passion for athletics, having played rugby in his youth, then cricket and now it is golf. The actor's search for cutting-edge productions led him to "Nostradamus" (1994), an eccentric version of the 16th century visionary filmed in Romania. Tcheky Karyo plays the title role and Higgins brings up the ranks as King Henry II of France. Diana Quick (Higgins' mistress in "Max, Mon Amour") plays Diane de Poitier alongside Amanda Plummer as his quirky queen, Catherine de Medici. Higgins plays Henry as extremely effective politically and a great athlete. Higgins' research found that jousting was his other great love as evidenced from the time, effort and money that went into his armor, which is embossed with exquisite scenes from classical history and still exists as an extraordinary artifact.
One of Higgins' best moments onscreen is as Korah, a Hebrew in "Moses" (1996), a television miniseries that aired internationally with Ben Kingsley in the title role. After initial skepticism, Korah silently communicates religious rapture as manna slowly falls from heaven on his ecstatic face, revealing a believer in the end. In the middle 1990s, it seems that there was a chic rush for heterosexual male stars to play roles as HIV-stricken patients, i.e., witness Jeremy Irons in "Stealing Beauty." Higgins brings an understated dignity to the role of a Cuban choreographer in the AIDS-related film, "Alive and Kicking," also known as "Indian Summer" (1996). The film stars Jason Flemyng as his student and has a hopeful conclusion by author Martin Sherman ("Bent"). Higgins returned to the stage in November 1996 with the title role in "Max Klapper - A Life in Pictures." He received excellent notices as a post WWII German film director opposite Emily Lloyd as the actress whom he regards as his creation. The event marked the reopening as a live theater of the Electric Cinema in London, where, curiously, during WWII the theater's manager was suspected of sending messages to German Zeppelins from the roof. Higgins fervently plays Marcel, a Hungarian archaeologist in the Irish feature film, "The Fifth Province," (1997), with Ian Richardson, with whom he previously appeared in "Danton's Death" on British television. Higgins has been particularly commended for the scene where he digs furiously for treasure that was buried by the high kings of Ireland. The script is by the Irish Times-Aer Lingus prize winning, hilarious novelist, Nina Fitzpatrick (Fables of the Irish Intelligentsia). The film sometimes surfaces on Sky TV. In the late 90s, Higgins continued to appear on British television in various roles and slipped into the snakeskins of seriously degenerated criminals in the television crime dramas, "The Governor I," "Supply and Demand I," and "Trial and Retribution III" (now available on DVD in Region 2). All were written by Lynda LaPlante ("Prime Suspect"), who was, coincidentally, an extra in "The Draughtsman's Contract." However, the actor becomes orderly again in 2001, as he plays a talent agent of dubious trust in "The Last Minute," directed by Stephen Norrington ("League of Extraordinary Gentlemen"). The theme is the unworthiness of fame in trendy London. The hero, labeled as "the next big thing," rebels against the agent and descends into hell before finding out how to value his life.
One key to understanding Higgins' personality might be to recognize that his true love is the horn. In 2000, he commissioned British trumpeter Guy Barker, ("Great Expectations" 1998), to write a jazz soundtrack for a short film that Higgins wrote and directed, starring himself and British actress, Frances Barber, "Blood Count." It has been playing at European Film Festivals. In March 2003, Higgins lent his deep, but mellifluous, voice to narrate "Sounds in Black and White," Barker's homage concert to film noir, with the 60 piece London Metropolitan Orchestra at the Barbican Theater in London. In 2004, American television viewers can look forward to seeing him in an "Inspector Lynley Series II" episode on PBS' "Mystery Theater." A large part of Higgins' charisma is due to his voice, mannerisms and unique style that remain unruffled as he ages. He is not on the celebrity A list, the B list or even the Z list but he is high on many viewers' lists of interesting actors to watch because of his magnetism, intensity and unpredictability. The first decade of the new millennium has presented several new interesting British actors on the screen. However, many do not seem to have a strong classical stage training, which is Higgins' rock, and they often throw their lines away. Although not all of his roles have grandeur, people invariably comment about Higgins what he has said of Robert Mitchum, "Even in terrible movies, he is always good." Higgins' light may have reached millions of viewers but he never sold out for money. Some have called him a "career actor" but he has yet to receive the recognition of which his talent is worthy. Where is he? He is building a legacy as a character actor. Film history will show that he is a noteworthy one.Sherlock Homes Returns: 1994 Baker Street (1993)- Actor
- Costume and Wardrobe Department
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British actor Patrick Macnee was born on February 6, 1922 in London, England into a wealthy and eccentric family. His father, Daniel Macnee, was a race horse trainer, who drank and gambled away the family fortune, leaving young Patrick to be raised by his lesbian mother, Dorothea Mary, and her partner. Shortly after graduating from Eton (from which he was almost expelled for running a gambling ring), Macnee first appeared on stage and made his film debut as an extra in Pygmalion (1938). His career was interrupted by World War II, during which he served in the Royal Navy. After military service, Macnee attended the Webber Douglas School of Dramatic Art in London on scholarship. He also resumed his stage and film career, with bit parts such as Young Jacob Marley in A Christmas Carol (1951). Disappointed with his limited roles, Macnee left England for Canada and the United States.
In 1954, he went to Broadway with an Old Vic troupe and later moved on to Hollywood, where he made occasional television and film appearances until returning to England in 1959. Once back home, he took advantage of his producing experience in Canada to become co-producer of the British television series Winston Churchill: The Valiant Years (1960). Shortly thereafter, Macnee landed the role that brought him worldwide fame and popularity in the part of John Steed, in the classic British television series The Avengers (1961). His close identification with this character limited his career choices after the cancellation of the series in 1969, prompting him to reprise the role in The New Avengers (1976), which, though popular, failed to recapture the magic of the original series. During the 1980s and 1990s, Macnee became a familiar face on American television in such series as Gavilan (1982), Empire (1984), Thunder in Paradise (1994) and NightMan (1997). In the past decade, Macnee has also made several audio recordings of book fiction.The Hound of London (1993)- Fan Ai Li is known for Sherlock Holmes in China (1994).Sherlock Holmes in China (1994)
Timeshift: Baker Street Babylon (2002) - Actor
- Music Department
- Additional Crew
Jeff Bennett is an American voice actor who is well-known for voicing Johnny Bravo (based on Elvis Presley's voice), Dr. Hamsterviel from Lilo & Stitch, Kowalski from The Penguins of Madagascar, Petrie in The Land Before Time, Ted Shackleford (The Man in the Yellow Hat) from Curious George, Yosemite Sam in Looney Tunes: Back in Action, Smee in Return to Never Land and Kingdom Hearts, Dexter's Dad in Dexter's Laboratory, Cyril in The Legend of Spyro, Extor in Samurai Jack, JB, Pins, Needles and Caged Juju in Tak and the Power of Juju, Ace, Big Billy, Pickloids, Broccoloids and Grubber in The Powerpuff Girls and Raj in Camp Lazlo.Animaniacs: Deduces Wild (1995)- Actor
- Producer
- Writer
Bill Barretta was born on 19 June 1964 in Yardley, Pennsylvania, USA. He is an actor and producer, known for The Muppets (2011), Muppet Treasure Island (1996) and Muppets Most Wanted (2014). He is married to Cristina Campbell. They have one child.Muppets Tonight: Paula Abdul (1996)- Sound Department
Brian Hackney was born on 12 November 1957 in Hollister, California, USA. He is known for Haircut (2010), Driven (2001) and Newton's Apple (1983).Newton's Apple S15E02: Fog (1998)- Actor
- Soundtrack
Jason Gray-Stanford was born on 19 May 1970 in Vancouver, British Columbia, Canada. He is an actor, known for Monk (2002), A Beautiful Mind (2001) and Flags of Our Fathers (2006). He was previously married to Jes Macallan.Sherlock Holmes in the 22nd Century/Voice (1999-2001)- Actor
- Writer
- Producer
Matt Frewer has been travelling all over North America in recent months filming recurring roles. Most recently, he worked in Los Angeles for HBO's Perry Mason and in Austin for AMC's Fear The Walking Dead. In Vancouver portrayed Carnage in Netflix's sci-fi drama Altered Carbon (2018); in Montreal (opposite Dennis Quaid) as Anthony Bruhl in NBC's Timeless (2016); in Toronto as Paul Rice in Crackle's The Art of More (2015), and also in Toronto as Dr. Leekie on BBC America's award-winning Orphan Black (2013); and in Brooklyn, New York as Dr. J. M. Christiansen in Steven Soderbergh's gritty early-20th century hospital drama The Knick (2014).
Frewer's film credits include Steven Spielberg's The BFG (2016), 20th Century Fox's Night at the Museum: Secret of the Tomb (2014), 50/50 (2011) (with Seth Rogen and Joseph Gordon-Levitt), Foreverland (2011), Frankie & Alice (2010) (with Halle Berry), and as Moloch in Zack Snyder's Watchmen (2009). He appeared in Snyder's 2004 film, Dawn of the Dead (2004). He filmed Attack on Darfur (2009) in South Africa and played the lead in the action/adventure film Wushu Warrior (2011), which was filmed in China. Other work on the big screen includes playing "Big Russ Thompson" in Honey, I Shrunk the Kids (1989), and Jobe Smith, the nefarious computer genius in Lawnmower Man 2: Beyond Cyberspace (1995). Frewer starred in four Sherlock Holmes films for Muse Entertainment, CTV and the Odyssey Channel.
He performed leading roles in numerous television movies & miniseries, including Nick Willing's Alice (2009) (as the White Knight; for which he was nominated for a Gemini Award). He reunited with Nick Willing to play Daedalus in 13 episodes of Olympus (2015). Frewer starred in the television miniseries Delete (2013) for Brightlight Pictures, A&E's miniseries Bag of Bones (2011) with Pierce Brosnan, Hallmark's Battle of the Bulbs (2010), and in Spielberg's Taken (2002). He played an arsonist known as the " Trashcan Man" in the Stephen King-scripted ABC miniseries, The Stand (1994).
In addition to his recent television work, Cable Ace and Gemini award-winning Frewer is a familiar face on the Emmy-nominated DreamWorks/TNT Falling Skies (2011) as well as Eureka (Sci-Fi), Intelligence (CBC), and Doctor, Doctor (CBS). He made guest appearances on such prime time network television series as St. Elsewhere, Miami Vice, and Star Trek: The Next Generation. Other notable turns on television include portraying such real-life notable individuals as U.S. Ambassador Edwin O. Reischauer in American Playhouse's Long Shadows (1994) (PBS), Alexander Haig in Kissinger and Nixon (1995) (TNT), and Gene Kranz in the made-for-television movie Apollo 11 (1996).The Hound of the Baskervilles (2000)
The Sign of Four (2001)
The Royal Scandal (2001)
The Case of the Whitechapel Vampire (2002)